High court to hear Texas case about prayer during executions

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court is to hear arguments in a case about whether Texas must allow a chaplain to pray audibly and touch a prisoner during an execution.

Executions in the nation’s busiest death penalty state have been delayed while the court considers the question.

The case before the justices involves an inmate, John Henry Ramirez, who is on death row for killing a Corpus Christi convenience store worker during a 2004 robbery.

Ramirez’s lawyers sued after Texas said it would not allow his minister to pray audibly and touch him as he is being given a lethal injection.