Colorado Supreme Court troubled by mixing sentencing and the Bible
As detailed in this AP article, the Colorado Supreme Court on Monday, in a divided 3-2 ruling, affirmed a lower appellate court’s determination that a death sentence should be overturned because jurors consulted the Bible during deliberations in the penalty phase. The lengthy decision in People v. Harlan, No. 03SA173 (Colo. Mar 28, 2005), is available here. The New York Times has this thoughtful article about the decision, and TalkLeft has a post and interesting comments on the case here.
This ruling in Harlan stands in interesting contrast to a decision a few months ago from the Sixth Circuit in Arnett v. Jackson, No. 03-4375 (6th Cir. Jan. 6, 2005). In Arnett, which I first discussed in this post, a divided panel reversed a grant of habeas corpus for a state prisoner in a child rape case, concluding that the district court should not have granted habeas due to the state trial judge’s references to the Bible during petitioner’s sentencing hearing.
Below I provide a few links to some other coverage of the intersection of sentencing issues and religion (which is, in my view, a fascinating and under-examined topic):