The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution of a Texas inmate who said the state would violate his religious rights by executing him without a chaplain of his faith in the room.
The trial court in Ruben Gutierrez’s case should “promptly determine, based on whatever evidence the parties provide, whether serious security problems would result if a prisoner facing execution is permitted to choose the spiritual adviser the prisoner wishes to have in his immediate presence during the execution,” the high court said in its order Tuesday evening, published about an hour before his execution was scheduled to take place. ...