Last Thursday, the Delaware Chancery court in Wilmington refused to issue an order blocking Christian funeral services for murder victim Jeanea Irvin, who had converted to Islam eight years ago. Saturday’s Wilmington News-Journal reports that Irvin’s husband, Timothy Boyer, had asked the court to stop the funeral being planned by Irvin’s family so she could be buried according to Islamic law. However, Timothy and Jeanea had married in 2006 in a religious ceremony without obtaining a civil marriage license. The court ruled this meant the marriage was not recognized under Delaware law, and the normal rights Irvin’s husband would have to determine the details of her funeral instead passed to her parents.
UPDATE: The full opinion is now available on LEXIS: Boyer v. Irvin, 2007 Del. Ch. LEXIS 146 (DE Ch., Oct. 19, 2007).
