An American sentenced to death for the murder of a 70-year-old couple was executed on Thursday in the presence of a priest who the administration of the Oklahoma prison initially wanted to keep away, reports AFP.

An execution chamber with lethal injection in TexasPhoto: Texas Department of Criminal Justice via Bestimage / Bestimage / Profimedia

62-year-old Scott Eisember received a lethal injection at McAlester Prison in the central United States. This is the third executed in the country since the beginning of the year.

Nearly 20 years after his “heinous crimes (…) justice has been served,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who witnessed the execution, said in a statement.

Scott Eisember was sentenced to death for the murder of an elderly couple in 2003. According to Drummond, he “held them captive for hours in their home” before shooting his wife and then fracturing her husband’s skull with his gun.

Last September, he was visited by an anti-death penalty priest, Geoffrey Hood, a member of the Old Catholic Church (which broke away from Rome). The two men became close, and Scott Eisember wanted Hood to accompany him as he transitioned from life to death.

On January 4, the prison authorities refused, citing the priest’s “belligerence”, which they said could cause riots during the execution.

Two men sued, accusing officials of “hostility to religion” for denying an inmate the right to have a spiritual advisor of his choice at the most critical moment of his life: death, they wrote to their attorneys.

To put an end to these proceedings, the Oklahoma prison authorities finally agreed to the presence of Reverend Hood, saying that they were acting in the interests of the victims’ families.

“The families of the victims are ready to move forward and understand that this complaint (…) may delay execution,” prison director Stephen Harp said in a statement.

In the United States, looming executions usually trigger legal battles that often end up at the last minute before the US Supreme Court.

Since the revision by former Republican President Donald Trump, the court has rejected most appeals from the convicts, except those filed in the name of religious freedom.

In 2021, he granted a reprieve to a Texas judge who wanted his priest to lay hands on his body during the execution.