HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A member of the "Texas 7" gang of escaped prisoners won a reprieve Thursday night from execution for the fatal shooting of a suburban Dallas police officer after claiming his religious freedom would be violated if his Buddhist spiritual adviser wasn't allowed to be in the death chamber with him. The U.S. Supreme Court blocked Patrick Murphy's execution about two hours after he could have been executed. Patrick Murphy Texas Department of Criminal Justice / AP Murphy's attorneys had said that Texas prison officials' efforts to prevent the inmate's spiritual adviser, a Buddhist priest, from being with him when he is put to death violated Murphy's First Amendment right to freedom of religion. Murphy, 57, became a Buddhist almost a decade ago while incarcerated. Lower courts had rejected Murphy's argument. But in a concurring opinion Thursday night, the newest justice on the court, Brett Kavanaugh, said the Texas prison system allows a Christian or Muslim inmate to have a state-employed Christian or Muslim religious adviser present either in the execution room or in the adjacent viewing room. But inmates of other religious denominations who want their religious adviser to be present can have the adviser present only in the viewing room and not in the execution room itself, he said. "As this Court has repeatedly held, governmental discrimination against religion, in particular, discrimination against religious persons, religious organizations, and religious speech_violates the Constitution," he wrote. "The government may not discriminate against religion generally or against particular religious denominations." Kavanaugh said Texas can't move forward with Murphy's punishment unless the state permits his Buddhist adviser or another Buddhist reverend of the state's choosing to accompany Murphy in the chamber during the execution. "What the State may not do, in my view, is allow Christian or Muslim inmates but not Buddhist inmates to have a religious adviser of their religion in the execution room," the justice said. Kavanaugh did not hear any death penalty cases in his 12 years as an appeals court judge joining the Supreme Court. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel the state would review the ruling to determine how to respond. Desel said Murphy would be returned from the Huntsville Unit prison, where executions are carried out, to the Polunsky Unit, about 45 miles to the east, where death row inmates are imprisoned. "I knew there was a thin thread of possibility," a smiling Murphy said from a holding cell just a few feet from the death chamber after he was told by the warden he received a reprieve. Texas officials argued to the court, citing security concerns, that only chaplains who had been extensively vetted by the prison system were allowed within the chamber. While Christian and Muslim chaplains were available, no Buddhist priest was. Prison officials allowed Murphy to visit with his spiritual adviser for about 40 minutes Thursday afternoon. Murphy was among the inmates who escaped from a South Texas prison in December 2000 and then committed numerous robberies, including the one in which they shot 29-year-old Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins 11 times, killing him. Hawkins, who had been with the Irving police force about 14 months, had just finished Christmas Eve dinner with his family when he responded to the call about the robbery at a sporting goods store and was ambushed. The escaped inmates were arrested a month later in Colorado, ending a six-week manhunt. One of them killed himself as officers closed in and the other six were convicted of killing Hawkins and sentenced to death. Murphy would have been the fifth to be executed. The sixth inmate, Randy Halprin, has not been given an execution date. Murphy would have been the fourth inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the third executed in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state. In February, the Supreme Court rejected a request from a Muslim death row inmate in Alabama to have his Islamic spiritual adviser be present in the execution chamber. Dominique Ray, who was executed, also argued his religious rights were violated because Alabama allows a Christian chaplain employed by the prison to be in the execution chamber. Murphy was convicted under Texas' law of parties, which holds a person criminally responsible for the actions of another if they are engaged in a conspiracy. Murphy's attorneys had also asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to stop his execution, arguing his death sentence is unconstitutional because he was only the lookout during the robbery, never firing at Hawkins because he had left the scene before the shooting began. The appeals court earlier this week turned down the request while the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend either a commutation of his sentence or a 90-day reprieve. "It is unconscionable that Patrick Murphy may be executed for a murder he did not commit that resulted from a robbery in which he did not participate," his attorneys, David Dow and Jeff Newberry, said in a statement. Toby Shook, the lead prosecutor who handled Murphy's case and those of the other five members, said Murphy actively participated in the robbery, monitoring a police scanner from a getaway vehicle and telling the other inmates when Hawkins was coming to the back of the store. "He alerted them. That allowed them to set up their ambush," said Shook, who is now a criminal defense attorney in Dallas. Murphy was serving 50 years for a Dallas sexual assault but was only 15 months away from being released on mandatory parole when he took part in the prison escape. Shook said Murphy has a very long and violent criminal history, including molesting his step-sister and pulling a gun on his father. "They all were violent felons," Shook said. "So, he fit in perfectly with the rest of the Texas 7. He actively participated in all their robberies and all their crimes when they were out on the run."<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the execution of a Buddhist inmate in Texas whose request that his spiritual adviser be present in the execution chamber had been denied. In a brief, unsigned order, the court said that Texas may not execute the inmate, Patrick H. Murphy, “unless the state permits Murphy’s Buddhist spiritual adviser or another Buddhist reverend of the state’s choosing to accompany Murphy in the execution chamber during the execution.” Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have allowed the execution to proceed. In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote that the state’s policy of allowing only Christian and Muslim chaplains to attend executions amounted to unconstitutional religious discrimination. “The government may not discriminate against religion generally or against particular religious denominations,” he wrote. “In this case,” he wrote, “the relevant Texas policy allows a Christian or Muslim inmate to have a state-employed Christian or Muslim religious adviser present either in the execution room or in the adjacent viewing room. But inmates of other religious denominations — for example, Buddhist inmates such as Murphy — who want their religious adviser to be present can have the religious adviser present only in the viewing room and not in the execution room itself for their executions.”<doc-sep>(CNN) — The Supreme Court agreed Thursday night to halt the execution of a Texas inmate, Patrick Henry Murphy, after he argued that the state was refusing to allow his Buddhist spiritual adviser to accompany him into the chamber. “The State may not carry out Murphy’s execution,” the court said in an unsigned order, “unless the State permits Murphy’s Buddhist spiritual adviser or another Buddhist reverend of the State’s choosing to accompany Murphy in the execution chamber during the execution.” Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch would have denied the stay. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote to explain why he voted to grant the application. “The government may not discriminate against religion generally or against particular religious denominations,” Kavanaugh wrote. The case marks the second time in recent weeks that the justices have been asked to put an execution on hold because a prison policy allows Christian or Muslim chaplains who are prison employees to be present, but not advisers of other religions. The prison forbids advisers of other denominations who are not prison employees into the chamber out of security concerns. The cases pit an inmate’s claims of religious liberty against prison officials who say the requests are meritless and simply last-ditch attempts to avoid execution. Murphy, on death row for the murder of police officer Aubrey Hawkins in 2000, was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, but the court stayed the execution after 9 p.m. In a flurry of last-minute petitions, lawyers for Murphy said the state violated his religious liberty because it blocked the Rev. Hui-Yong Shih from being present in the execution chamber. Back in February, in a strikingly similar case out of Alabama, a deeply divided Supreme Court split 5-4 and allowed the execution of an inmate, Domineque Ray, go forward despite the fact that Ray argued that his religious freedom rights were violated when the prison barred his imam from being present at the execution. The Alabama prison only employed a Christian chaplain. The conservatives on the court said they acted because Ray had waited too long to seek review. But Justice Elena Kagan wrote a scathing dissent, joined by the three other liberal justices on the bench, calling the majority’s move “profoundly wrong.” “Here, Ray has put forward a powerful claim that his religious rights will be violated at the moment the State puts him to death,” Kagan wrote, saying that the treatment “goes against the Establishment Clause’s core principle of denominational neutrality.” She said her colleagues in the majority should have allowed the lower court to hear the claim in full. Supporters of religious liberty also heavily criticized the Conservatives’ vote. Writing for the National Review, David French called it a “grave injustice.” In explaining his vote in the Texas case Thursday night, Kavanaugh offered one reason – in a footnote – that might explain why he voted in favor of Murphy after he had cleared the way for Ray’s execution. “I conclude that Murphy made his request to the State in a sufficiently timely manner, one month before the scheduled execution,” Kavanaugh wrote. Kavanaugh also said that states had two options going forward: allow all inmates to have a religious adviser of their religion in the execution room or allow inmates to have a religious adviser, including a state-employed chaplain, only in the viewing room, not the execution room. “What the State may not do, in my view, is allow Christian or Muslim inmates but not Buddhist inmates to have a religious adviser of their religion in the execution room,” he said. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had argued in briefs that the court should rule against the inmate because “he is dilatory, he fails to show likely success on the merits for a variety of reasons, he fails to show irreparable harm” and that the prison’s execution protocol that prohibits chaplains who are not employees from the execution chamber has been in place since July 2012. Paxton said the policy is meant to ensure the “safety and security” of the execution process. The case prompted a friend of the court brief filed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit law firm. Lead lawyer Eric Rassbach said he was filing the brief to “clarify the law” because he was concerned that the “time-compressed nature” of the appeal could “obscure” important religious liberty issues at stake, and that the justices were sure to face similar petitions in the future. “The right of a condemned person to the comfort of clergy – and the rights of clergy to comfort the condemned – are among the longest-standing and most well-recognized forms of religious exercise known to civilization,” he wrote. “Texas is no doubt capable of making this accommodation if required to do so,” Rassbach added. After the court acted, Rassbach issued a statement. “Religious liberty won today,” he said. “The Supreme Court made it clear that the First Amendment applies to every American, no matter their faith.”<doc-sep>Supreme Court intervenes in execution of Buddhist prisoner By Amy Howe at 12:11 am Last month the Supreme Court cleared the way for Alabama to execute a Muslim inmate after denying the inmate’s request to have an imam at his side in the execution chamber, even though the prison would have allowed a Christian chaplain to be present in the chamber. But tonight the justices blocked the state of Texas from executing a Buddhist prisoner, Patrick Murphy, while Murphy files a petition for review of his case on the merits, unless the state allows either Murphy’s spiritual advisor or another Buddhist priest to join Murphy in the execution chamber during the execution. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch indicated that they would have denied Murphy’s request. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a separate opinion agreeing with the court’s decision to block the state from executing Murphy unless he is allowed to have a Buddhist priest at his side. Noting that Murphy had asked to have his spiritual advisor at his side during his execution a month ago (and therefore distinguishing the case from that of the Alabama inmate, whom the majority regarded as having asked for relief too late), Kavanaugh stressed that Texas allows Muslim and Christian inmates to have a Muslim or Christian spiritual advisor employed by the state in the execution chamber, while other inmates of other faiths, including Buddhism, can only have their spiritual advisors in the viewing room. Kavanaugh acknowledged that states may have “a strong interest in tightly controlling access to an execution room in order to ensure that the execution occurs without any complications, distractions, or disruptions.” But the answer to those concerns, he continued, would be to restrict all spiritual advisors, regardless of their faith, to the viewing room. What the state cannot do, he concluded, “is to allow Christian or Muslim inmates but not Buddhist inmates to have a religious adviser of their religion in the execution room.”<doc-sep>
The Supreme Court blocked the execution of a Texas inmate on Thursday after state officials declined to let his spiritual adviser be present for the moment of his death. Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh Brett Michael KavanaughDemocrats: Roe v. Wade blow would fuel expanding Supreme Court Klobuchar offers tribute to her father, who died Wednesday Conservative justices split in ruling for immigrant fighting deportation MORE voted with the court's liberal justices to halt the execution of Patrick Henry Murphy, convicted for the murder of a police officer, after the state of Texas refused to allow his Buddhist spiritual adviser to be present in the execution chamber. A Texas state policy forbids chaplains who are not state employees from being in the same room when the execution is carried out. ADVERTISEMENT "As this Court has repeatedly held, governmental discrimination against religion — in particular, discrimination against religious persons, religious organizations, and religious speech — violates the Constitution," Kavanaugh wrote in his concurring opinion. "The government may not discriminate against religion generally or against particular religious denominations. "In this case, the relevant Texas policy allows a Christian or Muslim inmate to have a state-employed Christian or Muslim religious adviser present either in the execution room or in the adjacent viewing room," Kavanaugh continued. Buddhists or members of other denominations, he noted, "can have the religious adviser present only in the viewing room and not in the execution room itself for their executions. In my view, the Constitution prohibits such denominational discrimination." Two other conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, ruled that the execution should proceed, according to court documents. Murphy, who was first imprisoned for aggravated assault, escaped prison as a member of the "Texas 7" gang of criminals. The group killed a police officer, Aubrey Hawkins, while robbing a sporting goods store on Christmas Eve of 2000. Murphy was convicted of capitol murder in the case. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) celebrated the stay of Murphy's execution in a statement released on Twitter. "This is good news, but we can't forget this is the same court that denied a Muslim man the same right just last month," the ACLU tweeted, referencing a case in which an Alabama man was denied a stay of execution by the Supreme Court. "The only real difference between Domineque Ray's and Patrick Murphy Patrick Erin MurphyThe Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - Divided House on full display Mast fends off Democratic challenge to retain Florida House seat Supreme Court rules that large swath of Oklahoma belongs to Indian reservation MORE's requests to have clergy members of their own faiths at their executions is that Ray is a Muslim and Murphy is not. The Supreme Court's divergent rulings once again suggest that Muslims are not treated equally."