An Islamic group has sued the Alabama Department of Corrections for not allowing an imam, a Muslim clergy, into the Death Row chamber to pray with an inmate at his execution.
Yousef Maisonet, an imam who volunteers to lead Islamic prayers at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, was denied the right to accompany Muslim Death Row inmate Domineque Ray during his 2019 execution. At the time, Maisonet described Islamic rituals that were required for Muslims at the time of death.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, announced Thursday afternoon that it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile asking for a policy to allow imams to accompany Death Row inmates at their executions.
In 2019, Domineque Ray sought to have Maisonet present as his spiritual advisor during his execution. Ray’s lawyers claimed the Alabama Department of Corrections was violating Ray’s religious freedom rights by denying his request to have an imam be with him when he was executed at Holman Prison.
At the time, the Department of Corrections only allowed DOC employees in the chamber at the time of execution. Maisonet volunteers and was not on the staff of the DOC, which has no paid Muslim chaplains on staff. DOC offered to have its staff Christian chaplain present.
The Alabama chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Alabama) at the time called on the state to grant the religious accommodation request from Ray to have a Muslim chaplain present at his execution.
Ray’s request was denied and he was executed in February of 2019. Maisonet said afterwards that he gave instructions beforehand to Ray and prayers and rituals in preparation for death.
Later, DOC changed its policy so that no spiritual advisors were allowed in the chambers at the time of execution. Maisonet last year again sought to spiritually advise a Muslim inmate, when Nathaniel Woods was executed on March 5, 2020. He was again denied access, he said.
The lawsuit filed Thursday seeks to have the DOC establish a policy of allowing chaplains, including imams, into the execution chamber as spiritual advisors at the time of death.
“This case is about the religious liberty of all people,” said CAIR Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas. “We are hopeful that the State of Alabama will come to its senses.”