Texas executes John Ramirez, whose pastor was allowed by SCOTUS to touch him and pray aloud as he died | CNN

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : Texas denied the request, and Ramirez appealed, then sued as his execution neared, arguing the department's denial would violate his rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
49% : Ramirez's legal dispute highlighted the balance between an inmate's request for a religious accommodation at execution and a state's wish to respect security and safety concerns in the chamber.
48% : According to Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Ramirez's last words were: "I just want to say to the family of Pablo Castro, I appreciate everything that y'all did to try and communicate with me through the Victim's Advocacy program.
42% : A fresh legal twist emerged the next month, when the Nueces County district attorney filed a motion withdrawing his office's request for a death warrant, citing his "firm belief that the death penalty is unethical."
36% :Texas is among 27 US states that still have capital punishment, with five more executions scheduled through March.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.