Taking jury incompetence to new levels in Texas

In 1999, then-20-year-old Khristian Oliver was convicted of burglary and murder, when he shot a victim before smashing him in the head with a rifle butt. He was accompanied by an accomplice who later testified against him, and by all accounts, there are no doubts anywhere as to whether he is indeed guilty of the crime.

The trial ended with Oliver being sentenced to death. Whilst this is something to gripe about in itself, my being staunchly anti-death penalty, something else has been revealed that is absolutely ridiculous and even ought to be cause for a complete retrial. In deciding on Oliver’s sentence, the jurors referred to the Bible – the freakin’ Bible – for how they should deal with the felon.

After the trial, evidence emerged that jurors had consulted the Bible during their sentencing deliberations. At a hearing in June 1999, four of the jurors recalled that several Bibles had been present and highlighted passages had been passed around.

One juror had read aloud from the Bible to a group of fellow jurors, 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".

The judge ruled that the jury had not acted improperly and this was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

This is simply disgusting and outrageous. The Bible, and any part of any religion, has absolutely no place in a court of law, whatsoever. This isn’t just about Oliver’s death penalty; in all likelihood, being in Texas, he would’ve been sent to death row regardless of whether they invoked religion or not. This is about the methods used by the jury to determine a criminal’s guilt, as well as the actions that shall be taken against them.

Take a look at just how deeply entrenched religion is with these nutjobs. It’s scary.

In 2002, a Danish journalist interviewed a fifth juror. The latter said that "about 80 per cent" of the jurors had "brought scripture into the deliberation", and that the jurors had consulted the Bible "long before we ever reached a verdict".

He told the journalist he believed "the Bible is truth from page 1 to the last page", and that if civil law and biblical law were in conflict, the latter should prevail. He said that if he had been told he could not consult the Bible, "I would have left the courtroom". He described himself as a death penalty supporter, saying life imprisonment was a "burden" on the taxpayer.

Biblical law should trump civil law? Are you freakin’ kidding me? Does this wackaloon imbecile have any idea of the sort of monstrosity, immorality and depraved bullshit that passes for “Biblical justice”?!

If these Texan jurors want to use an archaic old book filled with barbarism to determine the fates of the accused, they can set up shop in backyard barns and deliver their own brand of “Texan justice” like the dim-witted hicks that they are. The court is to remain secular at all costs, free from religious rule. Even if people like Oliver truly are guilty of the worst crimes, their sentencing needs to be carried out in a rational and evidence-based matter, not by poring over ancient texts assembled by goat-herders in the Middle-East thousands of years ago. For fuck’s sake.

(via Pharyngula)