Black v. Dunn

Domineque Hakim Marcelle Black, a Muslim death-row inmate in Alabama, filed an emergency appeal seeking to have his imam present in the execution chamber during his lethal injection. The Alabama Department of Corrections policy allowed only a Christian prison chaplain inside the chamber, relegating Black's spiritual advisor to the witness room. Black argued this violated his First Amendment religious rights and the Establishment Clause. On November 7, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, vacated a lower court's stay of execution, allowing the execution to proceed without the imam's physical presence in the chamber. Black was executed shortly thereafter.

The U.S. Supreme Court vacated the Eleventh Circuit's stay of execution in a 5-4 vote, permitting the state to proceed with Black's execution without accommodating his request for an imam's presence in the execution chamber.

The central dispute focused on whether the Alabama prison policy violated the Free Exercise Clause by denying a Muslim inmate the right to have his imam physically present in the execution chamber, while granting Christian inmates access to a Christian chaplain, raising issues of religious discrimination and the timing of the legal challenge.

The decision sparked intense public debate and widespread criticism from interfaith leaders, civil rights organizations, and legal scholars who condemned the perceived religious discrimination. It prompted the Alabama Department of Corrections to eventually change its policy, prohibiting any clergy in the execution chamber before reverting to allowing an inmate's chosen spiritual advisor entry in subsequent protocol revisions.