AMNESTY International has appealed to the state of Texas to commute a sentence passed on Khristian Oliver, 32, who is due to die on November 5.
He was sentenced to death in 1999 for murdering a man whose home Oliver was burgling. The victim was shot in the face and beaten with his own rifle.
It later emerged that while deciding whether he should be given the death penalty, jurors consulted the Bible. Four jury members admitted that several copies had been in the jury room and that highlighted passages were passed around.
At one point, a juror reportedly read aloud from a copy, including the passage:
And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.
Another juror, a death penalty supporter, later told the media that “about 80 per cent” of the jurors had brought scripture into the deliberation”, and that if civil law and biblical law were in conflict, the latter should prevail. And he said that if he had been told he could not consult the Bible, “I would have left the courtroom.”
According to this report, defence lawyers argued in appeals that jurors had been improperly influenced by the Bibles, but the trial judge rejected the claim, a decision upheld by a Texas appeals court.
The US constitution calls for the separation of state and religion. In 2005, the state supreme court in Colorado overturned a death penalty on a convicted murderer because jurors had consulted the Bible while deliberating over his sentence. Commuting Robert Harlan’s sentence to life imprisonment without parole, the court ruled that the Bible constituted an “improper outside influence” and a reliance on what it called a “higher authority”.
However, a federal appeals court ruled last year that while the Bible should not have been allowed into the deliberation room at Oliver’s trial, there was no clear evidence to indicate they had influenced the jurors’ decision. In April this year, the US Supreme Court refused to hear Oliver’s appeal.
Kate Allen, Amnesty International’s UK director, said Oliver’s trial was a “travesty”.
Religious texts provide consolation and spiritual guidance for billions of people the world over, but this use of the Bible to decide life or death in a capital trial is deeply, deeply troubling.
Amnesty has an on-line petition calling on Texas Governor Rick Perry to halt the execution.
Part of the petition text says:
While I am not seeking to excuse violent crime or to downplay the suffering caused to its victims, I am extremely concerned that jurors at Khristian Oliver’s trial consulted the Bible, and that this calls into question their impartiality … Executive clemency exists precisely to correct serious abuses of Constitutional rights in cases where the courts cannot or will not intervene. I urge you to exercise your authority as Governor to ensure that Khristian Oliver is not executed.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
October 20th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
This boggles my mind. And it isn't about capital punishment, per se. I don't care if it's smacking peoples' hands with rulers, we don't need to be referring to the Bible to make the decision. We're letting the Dominionist camel poke his nose under the tent!
October 21st, 2009 at 4:09 am
Our preconceived beliefs are already a part of our beings; therefore, incorporated in all of our decisions. With or without the Bible the jurors would have made a decision based primarily on their worldview followed the weight of evidence.
"But the Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it
(Deuteronomy 30:14)."
October 21st, 2009 at 8:10 am
Discussed this with my wife and she had the same view Xnilo and had no problem with them referencing it. My view is that if their preconcieved beliefs were already present this would have come out during jury selection and been acceptable. What should be unacceptable is referencing a biblical text, after all if its already hard wired into their psyche then referencing the text to make a decision is a redundant action, and if its not hartd wired into their psyche then there has to be SOME free choice.
Otherwise you may as well do away with juries in deciding these matters and have one cleric / priest and twelve bibles.
This article highlights the immense challenge of separating church from state.
If they had each referenced the Koran there would be uproar in the USA right now.
October 21st, 2009 at 4:45 pm
While I can understand the views of the commenters above, it remains that these people specifically consulted the Bible in a effort to substantiate the way they wanted to rule and, apparently, to sway other jurors in the same direction. What the Bible says should have no formal place in Texas jurisprudence.