The Bible as Legal Cheat Sheet?
Interesting story in the NY Times today, about a death sentence verdict that was thrown out because jurors had consulted the Bible as part of their deliberation. Apparently the issue isn’t so much the use of religion as a deliberative factor, as that jurors were relying on “extraneous material” to make their decision.
In my opinion that’s a fair principle to have in place– it’s difficult enough that jurors come with so many different moral premises as it is, without throwing in explicit consideration of religious texts and viewpoints to make things even more time-consumingly counterproductive, not to mention overtly contentious. [And, as the article points out, “the Bible is hardly monolithic about what constitutes justice”. Even within one religion, there could be quite a brawl].
And it’s not really about religion per se– it would be an equal distraction from the facts of the case and laws at hand for jurors to bring in a book by Austin Sarat (he-whose-CV-is-longer-than-god) on the death penalty in legal theory. Even if such a book “forms the basis of [a juror’s] moral universe”.
Somehow I rather doubt the religious-right will be picking up on that key bit of nuance though…
