The Colorado Supreme Court recently upheld a lower court's decision reversing the sentence of a murderer who had been given the death penalty. Why? Because the jurors were found to have consulted the Bible in reaching their decision.
In this case, the issues of secularism, legal principles, and moral reasoning come into conflict, only because a slim majority on Colorado's highest court found that when jurors consult the Bible, they violate the legal requirement that jurors should follow only the instructions of the court itself. In its own way, this decision by the Colorado Supreme Court demonstrates this nation's growing allergic reaction to any claim that morality and moral reasoning should be rooted in the Bible.
The facts of this case appear simple enough. Robert Harlan was convicted of kidnapping a waitress, Rhonda Maloney, and later raping and murdering her. At some point in the commission of Harlan's crime, Maloney escaped and caught the attention of a passing motorist, Jaquie Creazzo. Eventually, Harlan shot Creazzo, leaving her paralyzed. He then murdered Maloney in an act of extreme violence and brutality.
After his conviction, the trial court jury was given instructions concerning the sentencing phase of the trial. Colorado law--in contrast to the law of other states--specifically instructs jurors that they must arrive at an "individual moral assessment" in making their decision regarding the death penalty. In the end, the jurors voted unanimously for the death penalty. Months later, an investigator working for Harlan's defense attorneys interviewed jurors about the nature of their deliberations. In the course of these interviews, some jurors indicated that Bibles had been brought into the jury room during deliberations and that at least some jurors had mentioned specific texts as relevant to the decision the jurors faced. In the Colorado Supreme Court's written decision, the court found that evidence adduced at the trial court's hearing shows that at least one juror brought a Bible, a Bible index, and handwritten notes into the jury room and shared information from the Bible with other jurors. Further, the court found that "these extraneous materials contained a passage commanding the death penalty for murderers and another instructing obedience to civil authorities." Lastly, "these passages were pointed out by at least one juror to another juror before the jury reached its unanimous verdict imposing the death sentence." The trial court later concluded "that use of the Bible in the jury room to demonstrate a requirement of the death penalty for the crime of murder could influence a typical juror to reject a life sentence for Harlan. Therefore, the trial court found that Colorado's legal standards require reversal of the jury's death sentence verdict in this case."
Prosecutors appealed the trial court's findings and the case eventually found its way to the Colorado Supreme Court. On March 28, that court--in a 3-2-2 decision--decided, "we can no longer say that Harlan's death sentence was not influenced by passion, prejudice, or some other arbitrary factor."
This sharply divided court produced a decision that apparently sets legal principles and moral reasoning on a collision course. Colorado law offers protections to defendants in capital cases, requiring that a death sentence not be influenced by the very "passion, prejudice, or some other arbitrary factor" that at least three Colorado Supreme Court jurists were willing to see in the use of the Bible in jury deliberations.
Again and again, the court's decision documents the fact that the trial court instructed the jury that it was to base its decision in the sentencing phase on the evidence provided in the case and "nothing else whatsoever." The judge actually instructed the jury that it was to rely upon absolutely no knowledge or moral reasoning not presented in the limited context of the trial. "I just want you to come to this court focused on this case ready to listen to the evidence in this case and to base your decision only on evidence that you get at this trial, nothing else whatsoever," he instructed. Just before opening statements in the trial began, the judge admonished the jury with these words: "Your purpose as jurors is to decide what the facts are, and your decision must be based solely upon the evidence presented in this courtroom."
