Texas Death Row Inmate Sues for Access to Pastor at Execution

August 19, 2021

A Texas death row inmate alleges state prison officials would violate federal law and Christian traditions by refusing to allow his pastor to be present and directly minister to him when he dies by lethal injection next month, the inmate's lawyer Seth Kretzer said today.

John Henry Ramirez, who is awaiting execution for a 2004 murder in Nueces County, filed suit in Houston federal court to force the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to allow ordained Baptist pastor Dana Moore to "lay hands" on Ramirez as he dies in the prison execution chamber.

The lawsuit alleges violations of the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 – and a prison policy break from 560 Texas executions from 1982 to 2019 that allowed the execution chamber presence of pre-screened, TDCJ-approved religious advisers.

Ramirez, who was convicted in 2008, is scheduled to executed on Sept. 8 at the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas. Two other execution dates for Ramirez were canceled in 2017 and 2020.

Kretzer said, "Important questions remain at the intersection of the law and Christian principles. Many Baptist ministers see the laying on of hands as a vitally important affirmation by God's people of their calling. It makes no sense legally that prison officials allow secular contact with death row inmates – by vetted guards and doctors, for example – but refuse to allow controlled religious contact. A prison doctor will touch Mr. Ramirez to determine when his pulse stops, but the state cannot explain why a minister cannot touch the body at the same time and in the same way."

Since 2019, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down TDCJ's protocol for execution attendance after a dispute with a Buddhist prisoner, state prison officials have repeatedly revised the execution attendance protocol for religious advisers. In April 2021, Ramirez was notified that Moore, the pastor of Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, Texas, would not be allowed to be present at the execution. Grievances filed by Ramirez were denied by the TDCJ.

"The State of Texas loses these spiritual advisor cases over and over," Kretzer said. "It's time to end the state's war on people of faith at the time of their demise. Our judgment of Mr. Ramirez is over. Let's move on and let him make his peace with his God with his pastor's help."

Moore, who was approved by prison officials to attend the execution, has counseled and visited Ramirez in prison for about five years.

Kretzer said, "TDCJ's current policy with regard to the presence of spiritual advisors in the execution chamber burdens Mr. Ramirez's free exercise of his Christian faith at his exact time of death, when most Christians believe they will either ascend to heaven or descend to hell – in other words, when religious instruction and practice is most needed. This is the most important at the moment of his death."

The Ramirez lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment that TDCJ's amended policy violates Ramirez's First Amendment rights under the Free Exercise Clause, a declaratory judgment that TDCJ's amended policy violates Mr. Ramirez's rights under RLUIPA, and a preliminary and permanent injunction prohibiting state prison officials from executing Ramirez until they can do so in a way that does not violate his rights.

The case is, "John Henry Ramirez vs. Bryan Collier, Executive Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Huntsville, Texas, et al.," Case No. 4:21-cv-2609 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division.

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SOURCE Law Offices of Seth Kretzer. Cover photo of DOC inmate by Damir Spanic.