Jury Reads Bible, Judge Voids Death Penalty Ruling

Sigh. You have to wonder whether the courts are becoming outright hostile to religion in all forms - or at least all Judeo-Christian forms - when a judge throws out a jury's ruling because they had a bible study. In the case of Robert Harlan, a convicted raping murderer, a jury's application of the death penalty was thrown out, simply because they consulted scripture as to the morality of the death penalty.

Robert Harlan of Denver, who raped and killed a waitress and permanently paralyzed the woman who tried to save her in 1994, instead will serve life in prison, the court said in a 3-2 ruling. Jurors could have been prejudiced by reading a passage from Leviticus that commands an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, the court ruled. Bob Grant, who tried the case as Adams County district attorney, said the evidence of Harlan's guilt was so overwhelming that the introduction of a Bible passage shouldn't have mattered...."This is a very important case because it demonstrated that in the U.S., unlike Iran, we do not turn religious law into civil law and just apply it," said Lynn, who is a lawyer and minister for the United Church of Christ.

There is separation of church and state, and then there is interfering with the free exercise of conscience. This certainly seems like the latter to me. Maybe the law students who read this site can gently correct me, if I am wrong.