Alabama Inmate Execution Cancelled Over Religions Rights

The U.S. Supreme Court says Alabama cannot execute a man without his pastor present. That upholds a lower-court ruling
in favor of willie B. Smith III. Justice Elena Kagan says a majority of the justices reject safety concerns from the Alabama Department of Corrections. She says Smith has a right to practice his religion, including at the moment of his death. Kagan added the Corrections Department can take other security measures but, not bar the spiritual advisor completely. Smith was sentenced to death for killing a 22 year old woman in 1991. Prosecutors said he abducted at the woman at gunpoint from an ATM, stole $80 from her and then took her to a cemetery where he shot her in the back of the head. This case is one of many legal fights over personal spiritual advisers at executions. In 2019, an execution of a Texas inmate who claimed his religious freedom would be violated if his Buddhist spiritual adviser wasn’t allowed to be in the death chamber was also halted.