Death Row Inmate Loses Appeal

{Louisville, Kentucky}…Friday, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled that death row inmate 40 year old William Harry Meece, Kentucky's only Jewish inmate on death row, could pray in his cell. Meece had claimed that it was a burden to pray in his small cell and that prison policies kept him from covering up the toilet or praying near it. The court disagreed, saying Meece can pray near a toilet and cover it with a sheet. Meece sued the state in 2007, alleging prison officials violated his legal religious right to observe the Sabbath by refusing to move him alone or with other inmates to a religious facility. Meece is awaiting execution for the deaths of three people in Adair County in 1993.