As noted in the News Scan, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay for a Texas murderer who says he wants his "Buddhist spiritual advisor" "or another Buddhist reverend of the State's choosing" to be with him in the execution chamber. The stay petition is here.*
The Fifth Circuit denied the stay petition for having been filed at the last minute. On February 7, the Supreme Court vacated on that basis a stay order issued by the Eleventh Circuit for Dominique Ray, discussed in this post. Murphy claims his case is distinguishable from Ray's, and the State answers that his delay is even worse. The order says:
The State may not carry out Murphy's execution pending the timely filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari unless the State permits Murphy's Buddhist spiritual advisor or another Buddhist reverend of the State's choosing to accompany Murphy in the execution chamber during the execution.
Justice Kavanaugh wrote a short opinion concurring in the grant of the stay, and with the four Ray dissenters that makes five. He drops a one-sentence footnote saying that, on the facts, he finds the petition timely enough. On the merits of the clergy-in-the-room controversy, he sees it pretty much the same way I did in the February 8 post. It's not hard, folks. If you don't want non-employee chaplains in the execution room, and you don't have employee chaplains for the non-Judeo-Christian religions, then just don't allow any chaplains in the room at all. If the murderer wants to confess and ask God's forgiveness with a clergyman, great, but he can do it before entering the room.
*Not sure what he means by a "Buddhist reverend." That is not a term
used in the type of Buddhist temple I am familiar with. But of course
there are variations.
Perhaps this result is justified. But it seems less than clear that the condemned really has standing, and it seems even less than clear that the stay was justified.
In any event, is it too impolitic to note that Justices Sotomayor and Kagan dissented from the famous cake-baker case out of Colorado. In that case, government officials, involved in adjudicating the guys case, viciously attacked his religion. Those two Justices were unmoved. But here, we get a stay? Methinks that opposition to capital punishment is driving this.
Growing up, my Episcopalian priest had a Saturday morning class about incorporating Buddhism into one's daily routine (this was in San Francisco; go figure), so maybe that's the type of "Buddhist reverend" this guy wants.