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A MUSLIM INMATE who filed a legal challenge because Alabama wouldn’t let his Islamic spiritual adviser be present in the execution chamber was put to death last night after the nation’s highest court cleared the way.
Dominique Ray, 42, was pronounced dead at 10:12 p.m. of a lethal injection at the state prison in Atmore.
Ray had argued Alabama’s execution procedure favours Christian inmates because a Christian chaplain employed by the prison typically remains in the execution chamber during a lethal injection, but the state would not let his imam be there in the room.
Attorneys for the state said only prison employees are allowed in the chamber for security reasons.
Ray’s imam, Yusef Maisonet, watched the execution from an adjoining witness room, after visiting with Ray over the past two days. There was no Christian chaplain in the chamber, a concession the state agreed to make.
Strapped to a gurney in the death chamber, Ray was asked by the warden if he had any final words. The inmate said an Islamic statement of his faith in Arabic.
The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday had stayed the execution over the religious arguments, but the US Supreme Court allowed it to proceed in a 5-4 decision yesterday evening.
Justices cited the fact that Ray did not raise the challenge until 28 January as a reason for the decision.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissent that she considered the decision to let the execution go forward “profoundly wrong.”
Other states generally allow spiritual advisers to accompany condemned inmates up to the execution chamber but not into it, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which studies capital punishment in the United States.
Durham said did not know of any other state where the execution protocol calls for a Christian chaplain to be present in the execution chamber.
Alabama Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said this is the first time the state has had an objection to the chaplain’s presence. He said the state will review procedures to determine if something needs to be changed.
Ray was sentenced to death for the 1995 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl.
Tiffany Harville disappeared from her Selma home on 15 July, 1995, and her decomposing body was found one month later in a cotton field.
It was Alabama’s first execution of the year.
Ray was convicted in 1999 after another man, Marcus Owden, confessed to his role in the crime and implicated Ray.
Owden told police that they had picked the girl up for a night out on the town and then raped her. Owden said that Ray cut the girl’s throat. Owden pleaded guilty to murder, testified against Ray and is serving a life sentence without parole.
A jury recommended the death penalty for Ray by an 11-1 vote.
Ray’s attorneys had also asked in legal filings to stay the execution on other grounds. Lawyers said it was not disclosed to the defence team that records from a state psychiatric facility suggested Owden suffered from schizophrenia and delusions.
The Supreme Court also rejected the request.
Spencer Hahn, one of Ray’s attorneys, said he was appalled that Ray received unequal treatment at his death because he was a member of a religious minority,
“Domineque was a devout Muslim and a human being. He was a son, a father, a brother. He wanted equal treatment in his last moments,” Hahn wrote in a statement.
Ray’s legal team said his first name was Domineque. The prison system used a different spelling, citing court records.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement saying he was pleased the court let the execution proceed.
“For 20 years, Domineque Ray has successfully eluded execution for the barbaric murder of a 15-year-old Selma girl. …Tonight, Ray’s long-delayed appointment with justice is finally met,” Marshall said.
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He gave up his rights when he raped and murdered a 15yr old girl.
@Danny Sherrard: But all those Christian murderers who get to have their faiths respected didn’t?
Either it’s rights for all or rights for none. You don’t get to pick and choose.
@Bryan Kelly: you are right should be for none
@Bryan Kelly: the Christian chaplains are prison employees. The imam was not
@marg fitzgerald: yep. Rights for none.
@Bryan Kelly: You’re right, you don’t get to choose & he didn’t get to choose the arrangements in what I would believe to be a very controlled environment because if you read back the rules were applied. Maybe he should have taken note of rules earlier in life before he lost his right to it.
@Bryan Kelly: This looks like nothing more then a stalling tactic. He would have known the rules for a very long time but decided to bring a court challenge a week before the execution date. The courts decided not to play ball, tough!
They can now look into employing an imam in the prison if needs be.
@Bryan Kelly: No convicted murderer should have any human rights.
@Ozmond: The 15 year old child didn’t get to see her spiritual adviser before she was murdered.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: so you’re looking to him a a role model? No need to sink to his level (though the timing of this does make it seem like he was more interested in a stay than he was spiritual guidance).
@Karen Wellington: Are you on drugs or something? I’m looking to him as a role model?
@Fr. Fintan Stack: sorry, I thought you suggesting that he should be denied certain rights (that he denied his victim) as part of his sentence; loosely using his crime as a model for his execution.
My point was that if a society descends to the level of its lowest members (criminals and deviants) then they’re no better than them.
@David Fitzgerald: That doesn’t make it right
The title should read “Child rapiiist sentenced to death” according to the journal this man is the real victim here
@Ger Murphy: As bad as The Journal is, I reckon they would spell check their headlines.
@Ger Murphy: The Journal are just reporting the facts. He was sentenced to death a long time ago. It’s a supreme court imbalance issue as .ugh as anything
@John A. Dixon: In what respect is it a Supreme Court imbalance?
@John A. Dixon: surely the Supreme Court only works if it imbalanced, otherwise you only ever get deadlocks
@Yokeymabob: I obviously spelt it that way to avoid the “perceived as toxic” comment smart hole
Got what he deserved
@Derek Moean: dropped 200 miles off the coast is getting what he deserved .
An easy lesson here. If you want to be accompanied by those you wish on your deathbed/chair then maybe don’t rape and kill people.
@Artugal: But all the Christian murderers do get to have a Christian clergyman present.
If they wanna strip one religion of rights then they should do it to all of them.
@Bryan Kelly: surely it’s a matter of faith, no? What’s he afraid of, not getting into heaven because of that?
Funny that he converted to Islam and got 25 years of life after abducting, raping and murdering a child then abandoning her body in a field.
Religion didn’t come into that one.
@Bryan Kelly: don’t think it’s a case of Christians getting to have one but more that there is going to be one there regardless of who you are.
“The state had a Christian chaplain present instead.”
“There was no Christian chaplain in the chamber, a concession the state agreed to make.”
Which was it?
@Terrence Edwards: word for word wrote what you said then realised you already said it. D’oh!
The outraged will be queuing up for this one.
@Josh Hanners: Nope…no outrage. I don’t care that his religious request wasn’t met. I care that his wasn’t but all the Christian murderers are.
Are you angry that they give respect Christian murderers respects? Gonna be a tiny bit consistent.
@Bryan Kelly: its because a chaplain is employed by the prison. Im guessing Islam isnt a big thing in Alabama as a lot of federal prisons do have them. No matter what he wanted I hope he didnt get to wherever he wanted to go. He deserved far worse than lethal injection.
@Paul O Mahony: he deserved to live a long and miserable life, the death penalty is too easy a way out. Her family’s suffering won’t end just because his has.
@Karen Wellington: If the “death penalty is too easy a way out”, why did this guy fight so hard against it? Likewise with the vast majortity if those on Death Row.
@Bryan Kelly: Well, you have a point that all religions should be treated equally, but I’ve no sympathy for this particularly odious individual.
@Michael Fahy: because death row is the difficult part, the impending doom and the unknown. Once they’re dead the have no worries or cares. They’re dead; incapable of suffering.
I’m not advocating for the cruel and unusual punishment of keeping people on death row indefinitely while convincing them that their date is just around the corner, I just think with a custodial sentence of a reasonable length (life without parole in Alabama) you have more scope to see justice served and a chance for the perpetrator to repent (sincere repentance).
I do realise that he effectively served a 20 year custodial sentence waiting for his execution but at 42 they could have wrung a few more years out of him.
@Karen Wellington: but his type thrive on miserable & long lives. (and strive to make everyone’s equally miserable)
@Bryan Kelly: Bryan is just desperate to get more cesspool twitter followers who will defend islam at any cost.
“the state had a christian chaplain present instead” in the sub headline, but “there was no Christian chaplain present in the chamber” in the article. Which was it?
@Sean Murphy: Stop nit-picking.
How can you expect the author to fix such tiny mistakes when they are busy taking selfies and looking at Instagram.
Hope the c##t died roarin..
I had a small bit of sympathy for the man until I got to what he did to deserve the death sentence.
@Luap: couldn’t you have guessed what end of the criminal spectrum he was on from the fact he got a death sentence?
@Luap: You think they give out the death penalty for multiple driving offences?
@jacquoranda: Jesus sorry lads did I upset yas there
@jacquoranda: Shhh.. Don’t be giving Shane Ross ideas.
@Luap: seriously. You couldn’t have from the headline that this guy was a despot. It’s people like you that are the permanently outraged or eternally sympathetic, that’s ruining this world. Facts first, then make a constructive comment afterwards.
One less to be concerned about
Despite the reasons for having a death sentence. Why is a Christian Chaplin present???? And a double WHY when the person does not want them there?????? If the Chaplin is there for spiritual guidance then it makes sense that a different flavour of spiritual guidance was appropriate for this man.
@crafty nut: Old rules and regulations for when America was a predominantly Christian country. The wheels of change turn slowly, especially when it comes to condemned prisoners.
Rules stipulate that only prison employees can be present in the execution chamber (fair enough). Also, the Christian Chaplin was not present for this guys execution.
@crafty nut: there wasn’t. Please re-read or even read the article and not the headline/opening paragraphs and you’ll see the chaplain actually wasn’t present. You silly permanently outraged or eternity forgiving people are destroying the world. This guy was a monster, what’s to be outraged on his behalf about?
Classic Alabama.
@Brian Jp Kelington: I’d take classic Alabama before classic Ireland in such regards. If it were here he’d be out out in 5 years with every social assistance imaginable. Good riddance to bad rubbish irrelevant of their religion.
Headline should read….
“Chance of child killer reoffending is zero!”
That’s the only sentence they should expect!
I’m sure Allah probably won’t be to concerned if there is a heaven or hell this man only deserves to go to hell
That’s pretty disgusting. The rape and murder of a child.
The only god he’s going to meet in the next life will be satan.
His religious wishes were negated when he raped and murdered a 15 year old.
Well he’s dead now, good riddance.
Did he afford that poor girl any rights before he raped,murdered and dumped her body in a field??? I hope her family find peace in time.
If Iran did that to a Christian. What has become of the US?
@Dinny Harkin: In Iran they execute homosexuals by throwing them off a roof. Don’t think America is quite there yet.
@Will: Oh America done that long ago..
@Dinny Harkin: Iran really please open ur eyes and ears. Bit of a harmless statement, considering the persecution Christian’s have suffered in the last decade in Muslim majority countries. Or is what I said offensive somehow, let me kno
He raped and murdered a 15 year old girl. You give up your rights for a crime like that, he violated that girl and her family and the community. Respecting his religious beliefs, nor the beliefs of any of person convicted of this sort of crime, is not a priority. If you are a person thinking of committing such a crime, bear in mind that, when you die, your religious beliefs may not be honoured.
Don’t do the crime if your not willing to do the time!
Good riddance!
May your 15 year old raped and murdered victim rest in peace.
More State Violence.
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