January 13, 2013

(JTA) — A Kentucky death row inmate reportedly was denied his request to pray on Shabbat in the prison’s chapel.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 11 that William Harry Meece, 40, can pray in his cell.

Meece had petitioned to be allowed to pray in the Institutional Religious Center at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville on his own or with other Jewish inmates, according to the Associated Press. Meece said it was a burden to pray in his cell, in part because of a toilet located in the cell. Meece lives separately from the rest of the prison population in an area with other death row inmates.

Meece, who is awaiting execution for killing three people in 1993, sued the Kentucky Department of Corrections in 2007 for the right to pray outside of his cell, accusing the department of violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which says prisoners should be allowed to worship as they please. The prison says it is a security risk to allow him to join services with Jewish inmates from the general prison population.

The three-judge panel said that Meece can cover the toilet with a sheet and pray in his cell. 
 
 

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