Dana Moore likes to get on the road by 3:30 am. It takes roughly five hours to drive from Corpus Christi to Livingston, Texas, and he tries to beat the morning traffic. He watches dawn slowly break, and stops at the same Buc-ee’s convenience store halfway on his journey to grab coffee and gas. By 8:30 he hopes to have reached the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, a prison in Livingston, where he starts his day: ministering to men on Texas’ death row.
“I’ve been asked, ‘Why this ministry?’” he says. “In the Bible, Jesus equates visiting those in prison with visiting him… I felt the ministry placed in front of me was a call from God. And so I say, ‘yes I will do that.’ Who can say no to God?”
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The 58-year-old Southern Baptist pastor became the spiritual advisor to John Ramirez, a 37-year-old death row prisoner, in 2017. Moore visits Ramirez around once a month; they sit and talk through a wall of plexiglass for two hours.
Ramirez was sentenced to death in 2008 for the 2004 murder of 46-year-old Corpus Christi convenience store clerk Pablo Castro. For years, Moore and Ramirez rarely talked about his looming execution.
Read more: The Death of the Death Penalty
But over the summer, their conversation turned towards death. Ramirez was scheduled to be executed Sept. 8. While prison officials said Moore would be allowed to stand in the execution chamber, he would not be able to touch Ramirez as he dies. On Aug. 10, his lawyer filed a federal lawsuit asking that Moore be allowed to do so. The state declined the request nine days later, adding that Moore would also not be allowed to audibly pray while in the room.
“That didn’t make sense to us,” Moore tells TIME. “The job of a minister is not to stand still and be quiet. Prayer is very important. And the power of touch is real. It’s encouraging. It brings peace. It’s significant… Why can’t I hold his hand?”
On Aug. 22, Ramirez’s lawyer filed an amended emergency petition asking that his execution…
Source : time
