Appeals court denies stay for Texas death row prisoner who wants pastor's touch

Sept. 6 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court on Monday denied a Texas death row prisoner's request for a stay based on religious grounds.

John Ramirez, 37, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for the 2004 murder of convenience store worker Pablo Castro in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Ramirez sought to have his execution stayed cited the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's policies on spiritual advisers during executions. The state allows a spiritual adviser into the death chamber, but Ramirez asked for Pastor Dana Moore to be allowed to put his hands on him and pray out loud during the execution.

The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, however, that allowing the spiritual adviser to touch Ramirez during the execution could botch the procedure.

"The complexities attending the administration of drugs in the execution procedure and its failures expose the risks of non-medical hands on the body of a person undergoing the procedure," the court said in its opinion.

Dissenting Judge James Dennis, however, said Ramirez's argument was likely to succeed on merits.

"Ramirez contends that audible prayer and physical touch are components of his religious faith and that the policy prohibiting him from exercising these practices violates his rights under the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA)," he wrote.

The TDCJ banned any chaplains from entering the state's execution chambers in 2019. The decision came after the Supreme Court stayed an execution after Texas declined to allow the inmate to have a Buddhist spiritual adviser with him during the lethal injection.

The state lifted the ban in April, revising its policy to allow death row prisoners to designate a TDCJ chaplain or other spiritual adviser of their choosing to be present inside the death chamber.