Convicted killer appeals death sentence based on jurors' alleged use of Bible
I think the best line from this story is as follows:
"Lord contends that using religious works during deliberations is improper because they are not Colorado law."
The LORD, here, is a defense attorney, if you were wondering.
Supposedly, the jurors (who were leaning to life in prison) were convinced to go for death after deliberating on the eye for the eye passage. Defense attorney says its no good because jurors have to deliberate on the law of colorado, not of God.
The idea sparks for a second or two, but quickly dies. jurors are humans, and will always rule based (i'd say evenly) on what their sympathy with the facts and their understanding of the law (given throught the jury instruction). If we were to take out their ability to rule on personal beliefs, there would be no reason to screen jurors...or really even to attempt to reach the jurors on a personal level.
More importantly, this is a question of final discretion- who should have it. If the jury is to have the final discretion (and i'm in the camp saying yes), then we can't argue too much about their bibles in hand.