The U.S. Supreme Court blocked Patrick Murphy's execution about two hours after he could have been executed.
Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A member of the"Texas 7" gang of escaped prisoners won a reprieve Thursday night from execution for the fatal shooting of a suburban Dallas police officer after claiming his religious freedom would be violated if his Buddhist spiritual adviser wasn't allowed to be in the death chamber with him.
"As this Court has repeatedly held, governmental discrimination against religion, in particular, discrimination against religious persons, religious organizations, and religious speech_violates the Constitution," he wrote."The government may not discriminate against religion generally or against particular religious denominations."
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel the state would review the ruling to determine how to respond. Murphy was among the inmates who escaped from a South Texas prison in December 2000 and then committed numerous robberies, including the one in which they shot 29-year-old Irving policeHawkins, who had been with the Irving police force about 14 months, had just finished Christmas Eve dinner with his family when he responded to the call about the robbery at a sporting goods store and was ambushed.
Murphy was convicted under Texas' law of parties, which holds a person criminally responsible for the actions of another if they are engaged in a conspiracy.
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