March 29, 2005
INFLAMMATORY AND PREJUDICIAL
Colorado Court Bars Execution Because Jurors Consulted Bible (Kirk Johnson, New York Times, March 29th, 2005)
In a sharply divided ruling, Colorado's highest court on Monday upheld a lower court's decision throwing out the sentence of a man who was given the death penalty after jurors consulted the Bible in reaching a verdict. The Bible, the court said, constituted an improper outside influence and a reliance on what the court called a "higher authority."Posted by Peter Burnet at March 29, 2005 5:10 PM"The judicial system works very hard to emphasize the rarified, solemn and sequestered nature of jury deliberations," the majority said in a 3-to-2 decision by a panel of the Colorado Supreme Court. "Jurors must deliberate in that atmosphere without the aid or distraction of extraneous texts."
The ruling involved the conviction of Robert Harlan, who was found guilty in 1995 of raping and murdering a cocktail waitress near Denver. After Mr. Harlan's conviction, the judge in the case - as Colorado law requires - sent the jury off to deliberate about the death penalty with an instruction to think beyond the narrow confines of the law. Each juror, the judge told the panel, must make an "individual moral assessment," in deciding whether Mr. Harlan should live.
The jurors voted unanimously for death. The State Supreme Court's decision changes that sentence to life in prison without parole.
In the decision on Monday, the dissenting judges said the majority had confused the internal codes of right and wrong that juries are expected to possess in such weighty moral matters with the outside influences that are always to be avoided, like newspaper articles or television programs about the case. The jurors consulted Bibles, the minority said, not to look for facts or alternative legal interpretations, but for wisdom.
As Rush said this a.m., this disqualifies anyone who knows their Bible from being jurors. I guess only Lefty liberals (progressives?) need apply. And we know how many of the accused will now serve time, due to their socio-economic upbringing and lack of role models, not to mention their lack of self-esteem.
Posted by: oswald booth czolgosz at March 29, 2005 6:02 PMChastening the judiciary will be no fun at all if they continue to press the self-destruct button this freely.
Posted by: Luciferous at March 29, 2005 6:14 PM"Chastening the judiciary will be no fun at all if they continue to press the self-destruct button this freely."
Chastise away. Call me when you get 51% of the people to agree with you. These judges read the polls too. This kind of blatant and outrageous disregard and disrespect for our founding principles was not offered up from a vacuum. They knew they could get away with it.
Posted by: NC3 at March 29, 2005 6:40 PMIt appears that judges and attorneys want tabula rosa jurors who only know what is introduced during the trial (a ridiculous proposition) and only reach judgement according to rules dictated by the judge. And apparently the judge's call for "individual moral assessment" must arise from a mental and cultural vacuum.
This is a usurpation of the common law right to trial by a jury of peers, which implies that a jury judges not only guilt or innocence but also the justice of the law itself and procedures and evidence presented -- the jury's power is superior to that of the judge or the legal process.
Posted by: jd watson at March 29, 2005 7:05 PM