Questions about Barbee's religious rights in the death chamber prompted a federal judge to pause the execution Tuesday night, but Texas is considering an appeal.
For the third time in four years, Texas is hoping to execute Stephen Barbee Wednesday evening. But first it must wait for courts to rule once again on the state’s handling of the prisoner’s religious rights in the death chamber.
Instead, Barbee said his co-worker Ron Dodd, also a defendant in the murders, committed the murders alone, and he helped Dodd hide the bodies. After Barbee was sentenced to death, Dodd pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence and got 10 years in prison, acknowledging he helped Barbee dispose of the victims’ bodies.
After the ruling, Tarrant County officials moved for a new execution date, set for October 2021. That time, it was canceled by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt of Houston while the U.S. Supreme Court weighed another Texas man’s case in a series of rulings over the Texas prison system’s handling of prisoners’ religious rights in the execution chamber.
"TDCJ is now operating under an unwritten policy where prison officials may unilaterally decide whether to allow an inmate’s requested accommodation … the accommodation may be withdrawn at the will or caprice of any prison official at the last moment," Hoyt wrote in his ruling. Texas is appealing that ruling to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court was also still weighing filings from Barbee regarding his religious rights Tuesday evening.
"If someone wants my arms to straighten out in any way, I guess one would have to break my arms, because even forcing them, they won’t straighten," Barbee said in a written affidavit last year. "It’s been like this for years and it’s getting worse."
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