A federal judge on Tuesday refused a death-row prisoner’s request to disqualify the Board of Executive Clemency from hearing his plea for mercy, finding that he didn’t prove that the governor’s office pressured board members to pursue a tough-on-crime policy.

A worker’s discrimination complaint has led to detailed allegations of an intolerable working environment at the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency under Chairman Jesse Hernandez.

Among other things, Hernandez ogled women in the office, called a staff member a heathen for not attending church, urged workers to gossip about one another and promoted a girlfriend who wasn’t qualified for the job, the state Department of Administration reported Wednesday.

Arizona politics not only kept courts busy in 2012, but led to a landmark case in June when the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the state’s most prominent immigration policy.

Gov. Jan Brewer fired the outgoing executive director of the Board of Executive Clemency after three newly confirmed appointees showed up late for work Monday.

Their tardiness caused a two-hour delay of clemency hearings as victims and families of prisoners stood by disgruntled, and waited for a quorum to form.