Court says inmate’s pastor should be with him; Alabama cancels execution catholicsun.org

After the Supreme Court blocked the execution of an Alabama man because it ruled his pastor should be allowed to be with him, the state canceled the execution.

In a divided midnight vote Feb. 11, the justices upheld a lower court’s ruling that Willie Smith III’s pastor should be with him in the execution chamber, which the state opposed.

The court also vacated a stay of execution from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in a separate ruling that said the state failed to provide Smith, who is intellectually disabled, help in reviewing paperwork that would have allowed him to choose an alternate method of execution…

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