MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A federal judge says a Muslim inmate's scheduled execution can proceed and ruled that Alabama does not need to let the inmate have an imam there.
U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins on Friday denied a stay requested by Dominique Ray.
The 42-year-old inmate is scheduled to be executed Feb. 7 for the 1995 fatal stabbing of 15-year-old Tiffany Harville.
Ray says his religious rights are being violated because the state has a Christian prison chaplain present at lethal injections, but will not let him have an imam.
Watkins said for security reasons the state can limit death chamber access to prison employees.
He ordered the state to keep the prison chaplain out of the chamber during Ray's execution. The state already said it was willing to do so.
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