Bible in the jury room

last updated 8 January 2015

Denver

The Colorado Supreme Court threw out a murderer’s death sentence this week because jurors consulted the Bible during their deliberations. Robert Harlan was convicted in 1995 of raping and murdering a cocktail waitress near Denver. Several jurors said they studied Bible passages—including the Old Testament’s “eye for eye, tooth for tooth”—before sentencing Harlan to death. The court’s majority said the Bible was a “distraction” that kept jurors from making up their own minds. “They went to the Bible to find out God’s position on capital punishment,” defense attorney Kathleen Lord said. The conservative Christian group Focus on the Family said the ruling confirmed that the nation’s courts were “nearly bereft of any moral foundation.”