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Alabama Executes Muslim Inmate Who Wanted Imam With Him

Supreme Court refused to accommodate prisoner where Christian minister is usually present.

A Muslim inmate whose execution was delayed when he requested that his imam be by his side as he died was put to death Thursday after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the killing. Dominique Ray’s imam, Yusef Maisonet, watched the execution from an adjoining witness room but was not allowed to be with the condemned man as he died. Ray, 42, was pronounced dead at 10:12 p.m. after a lethal injection at the state prison in Atmore. Ray had argued the state was discriminating against non-Christian prisoners because a Christian chaplain, employed by the prison, is usually present for executions but the state wouldn’t let his imam be there. Attorneys for the state, citing security reasons, said only prison employees are allowed in the chamber. The chaplain wasn’t present for the execution, a concession the state agreed to make. The inmate’s last words were an Islamic statement of his faith in Arabic. Ray was sentenced to death for the 1995 rape and murder of 15-year-old Tiffany Harville.