Alabama is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to let it proceed with the execution of an inmate who won a stay on religious grounds.

The Alabama attorney general’s office on Wednesday asked justices to vacate an execution stay for Dominique Ray. Ray’s execution was scheduled for Thursday.

Ray, who is Muslim, is asking that his imam replace a Christian prison chaplain who stays in the execution chamber during a lethal injection.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the execution to weigh whether Alabama’s procedures favor Christian inmates.

Alabama said it only allows prison employees in the chamber for security reasons.

The state said Ray’s imam can visit him beforehand and witness the execution from an adjoining room.

Ray was convicted in the 1995 death of 15-year-old Tiffany Harville.
(Associated Press, copyright 2018)

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