The latest Texas execution protocols forbid spiritual advisers from praying aloud or touching prisoners as the prisoners are killed. Some members of the high court said they feared overturning the rules would lead to a flood of requests for other religious accommodations during executions.
death penalty
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Criminal Justice
U.S. Supreme Court weighs religion’s place in the Texas death chamber
After halting three Texas executions because of limits placed on spiritual advisers in the death chamber, the high court will hear arguments today over what religious rights the state must accord inmates as it kills them.
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Criminal Justice
Rejecting claims of innocence, judge says Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed should not get a new trial
Doubts over Reed’s guilt in the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites have lingered for more than 20 years and gained international attention. But a judge decided against recommending a new trial.
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Criminal Justice
Texas executes Pasadena double murderer in third lethal injection this year
Rick Rhoades was convicted of killing two brothers 30 years ago, the day after he’d been released from prison on parole. His attorneys argued that racial bias in jury selection denied him a fair trial.
![“Judicial and prosecutorial misconduct — in the form of an undisclosed employment relationship between the trial judge and the prosecutor appearing before him — tainted [Clinton Young’s] entire proceeding from the outset,” Texas’ highest criminal court ruled.](https://i0.wp.com/www.texastribune.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Texas20Court20of20Criminal20Appeals20TT20MG2003-2-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
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Criminal Justice
Texas court tosses out conviction, death sentence after discovering a prosecutor also worked for the judge
Clinton Young was convicted in a 2001 Midland County murder in which he insists he was framed. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said he was denied the right to a fair trial and an impartial judge.
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Criminal Justice
For third time in recent years, U.S. Supreme Court halts a Texas execution over rules for religious advisers in the death chamber
John Ramirez was scheduled to die Wednesday. His last request to the state had been to let his pastor hold on to him as he died, something the state denied. The high court wants to hear oral arguments on the matter later this year.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Texas executes John Hummel for murdering his family in 2009
A civil liberties group had tried to delay Hummel’s death after reporters were excluded from the state’s last execution.
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Criminal Justice
For the first time in more than 40 years, media were not allowed to witness a Texas execution
On Wednesday, the state executed Quintin Jones, 41, for the Tarrant County murder of his great-aunt in 1999.
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Criminal Justice
Texas executed Quintin Jones for murdering his great aunt. Supporters questioned if race played a factor in his clemency rejection.
Relatives of Jones and his victim pleaded for the state to spare his life, but the Texas parole board declined. His lawyer argued that was because Jones was Black, since a white man in a similar situation was spared.
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Criminal Justice
Texas prisons reverse course, will allow religious advisers in execution chamber
The U.S. Supreme Court has twice stopped Texas executions over claims that previous prison policies were discriminatory and violated religious freedoms.
