By JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Death row inmates Patrick Murphy and Domineque Ray each turned to courts recently with a similar plea: Halt my execution if the state won't let a spiritual adviser of my faith accompany me into the execution chamber.

Both cases wound up at the Supreme Court. The justices overrode a lower court and allowed Ray's execution to go forward in Alabama in February. But they gave Murphy, a Texas inmate, a temporary reprieve Thursday night.

What the justices wrote suggests the opposite results came down to one thing: timing. Ray didn't ask to be joined by his spiritual adviser soon enough. Murphy did.

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