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Maryland Weighs Allowing Inmates' Own Clergy at Death

By Steve Hall

That's the title of a lengthy AP report distributed this morning via Google News.  It's written by Brian Witte.  LINKMaryland is considering becoming one of the few states to allow condemned inmates to choose a clergy member not employed by the state to be in the execution chamber when they die.Corrections officials must balance the sensitive issues of security during one of the gravest tasks undertaken by the state and religious freedom during a condemned person's final moments.The measure is being considered by Maryland legislators at a time when the death penalty is essentially on hold there after a court found that the way the state lethally injected its inmates wasn't properly approved.Most of the 35 states with capital punishment allow an inmate to meet with clergy of their choice in the hours before an execution, but the majority of them require spiritual advisers to watch the execution from an adjoining room...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on July 19, 2010 (boomark / email).