Comment on this story

Comment

Scott Eizember has resigned himself to dying on Thursday. But before he does, the death row inmate is fighting Oklahoma prison officials to let his priest into the execution chamber.

Eizember, 62, sued the director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and the warden of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on Monday, after officials barred the priest from being present when Eizember is executed by lethal injection this week.

The inmate claims prison officials are violating his First Amendment right to freely exercise his religion. In his lawsuit, he asks the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma to declare the prison’s prohibition unconstitutional and allow the priest to be with him when he dies.

“It’s about human dignity,” his lawyer, Randall Coyne, told The Washington Post. “It’s about the right to make peace with your God as you understand him at the moment of your death.”

In a statement obtained by The Post, corrections department spokesman Josh Ward said officials barred Jeffrey Hood, an Old Catholic priest, from attending the execution because he has been arrested multiple times in connection with his views against the death penalty, “demonstrating a blatant disregard for the experiences of victims’ families and the solemnity of the process.”

“Out of respect for the families of victims, [the Department of Corrections] will not allow the outbursts of activists to interfere, regardless of that activist’s declared role in this process,” Ward wrote.

Prison officials will allow Hood, who is also part of the lawsuit, to advise Eizember leading up to the execution. When it takes place, he will be able to watch on a closed-circuit feed, Ward said in the statement.

Coyne said Hood has been arrested three times in connection with his social justice advocacy, including a demonstration against the death penalty. Coyne said Hood would not interfere with or make a scene at Eizember’s execution, should he be allowed to attend.

“He’s never disrupted an execution. There’s a difference between his advocacy as a human rights activist and his work as a spiritual adviser,” he said.

Oklahoma plans to execute an inmate nearly every month until 2025

On Oct. 18, 2003, Eizember murdered a married couple in their 70s, after holding them captive in their home for hours, according to a statement from the Oklahoma attorney general’s office. Eizember shot Patsy Maye Cantrell with a shotgun before repeatedly bludgeoning A.J. Cantrell with the weapon.

He “made himself a snack and drank and sat in the house, unbothered, as A.J. and Patsy languished and died,” Attorney General John O’Connor wrote last month after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3 to 2 not to recommend clemency.

Eizember and Hood met last fall, according to the lawsuit. As part of his ministry, Hood reaches out to death row inmates who are about to be executed. In the months that followed, the two became close, the lawsuit states. They prayed and read scripture together. Hood heard Eizember’s confession, vouched for him at his clemency hearing and helped him reconnect with an estranged child.

“In short, Dr. Hood is Mr. Eizember’s pastor,” the lawsuit states. “At Mr. Eizember’s request, Dr. Hood agreed to accompany him into the execution chamber to minister to him at that critical hour.”

Hood applied to do so but was already familiar to prison officials, the lawsuit states. Since September, those officials had allowed Hood to visit four prisoners at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Before letting him in, they subjected him to multiple phone interviews, required he submit documents verifying he was a member of the clergy and ran an “extensive” background check, according to the suit.

“Dr. Hood apparently was not enough of a security concern to prevent him from entering the prison and interacting with prisoners such as Mr. Eizember,” the suit states.

Texas executes John Henry Ramirez, who won religious rights Supreme Court case

Coyne said his client’s case is akin to that of John Henry Ramirez, whose execution was delayed 13 months as he fought Texas prison officials after they prohibited Ramirez’s pastor from touching him during the execution. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately sided with Ramirez, who was executed in October and died with his pastor’s hands touching his chest.

Coyne is hoping for a similar victory for Eizember.

“The Supreme Court have said that religion and religious freedom matter, even in the execution chamber — maybe especially in the execution chamber,” he said.

María Luisa Paúl contributed to this report.

Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/11/oklahoma-death-row-priest/