Trial by Scripture

The Supreme Court yesterday declined to grant certiorari on Oliver v. Quarterman.

FACTS OF THE CASE

The facts of the case are as follows. The plaintiff, Oliver, had been convicted in Texas (still not Texsylvania, but getting closer!) of capital murder. After his conviction, the jury sentenced him to death. The appellate court writes:

"[Juror] Kenneth McHaney stated that during the jury’s deliberations, one juror, Kenneth Grace, read the Bible aloud to a small group of jurors in the corner of the jury room. McHaney also testified that fellow juror Donna Matheny mentioned to him that the Bible contained a passage discussing who is a murderer and who should be put to death, and that he asked Matheny if he could read her Bible, which Matheny had highlighted. McHaney recalled reading verses pertaining to the importance of obeying the law of the land, the commandment that “thou shalt not kill,” and the passage Matheny pointed out that discussed who is a murderer and who deserves a death sentence. In particular, he recalled reading a passage that says that if a man strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, then he is a murderer and should be put to death. McHaney also witnessed juror Rhonda Robinson reading the same passage from the Bible. McHaney believed that there were approximately four Bibles in the jury room, but he could not recall the exact number. He said that many jurors had Bibles with them because they went to church or Bible study at night.

Juror Maxine Symmank stated that she read the Bible to herself while in the jury room and that there was another male juror who read the Bible aloud to a small group of jurors at one end of the table. Symmank could not recall exactly when she read the Bible, although she believed it was after the jury made its punishment determination while the jurors waited for the court to reconvene. She admitted, however, that it is possible that she also read the Bible during earlier parts of the proceedings. Symmank recalled reading the same passage that McHaney had consulted from the Book of Numbers: “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.” Symmank had decided to read this passage after a fellow juror opened the Bible to that page. Symmank confirmed, however, that no juror explicitly stated that the jury should use the Bible as evidence in its deliberations.

Rodney Rodrigues corroborated the testimony of the previous two jurors that at least one juror read Biblical passages aloud to a small group of jurors at some point during the deliberations. He testified that he did not read the Bible, but that some of his fellow jurors did. He did not know which passages the other jurors read. Finally, Glenda Webb recalled seeing more than one Bible in the jury room, but she stated that the Bible was not a focus of the jury’s discussions. She recalled that some jurors consulted the Bible after they had made their decision on the appropriate punishment."

Oliver argued that his sixth and eighth amendment rights were violated by all of this consideration of the Bible during the sentencing deliberations. When he complained about this to the trial court, the trial court decided that, "a conscientious, dedicated and carrying [sic] jury considered this case in accord with the Court’s Charge and the instructions of the Court and rendered their verdict in accord with the evidence they heard in this case uninfluenced by any outside influence of any kind shown to the Court in this hearing.”

When he appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, that court held that, "While there was testimony that at least one Bible was brought to the jury room and some passages were read by a few jurors, every juror who testified stated that neither the Court nor another juror claimed that the Bible should be considered as law or evidence in the case.”

On appeal to the Federal District court, Oliver found new evidence:

"He alleged that juror Michael Brenneisen, who did not testify at the state court hearing, told foreign journalist Egon Clausen in an interview that the jurors discussed the Bible in depth before they rendered their decision during the punishment phase of the trial. Brenneisen told Clausen that he used the Bible during the punishment phase to ensure he was reaching the correct decision. Specifically, Brenneisen remembered asking himself, “is this the way the Lord would decide the case?” He also stated that the jury used the Bible “to lend support for or against the judgment call.” He noted that the jury “went both directions in our use of the scripture—forgiveness and judgment.” He acknowledged that the jury referred to specific passages in the Bible during its discussions, opening the Bible to various passages and reading them word-for-word. He also told Clausen that his personal belief is that if civil law and Biblical law conflict, then the Biblical law is paramount."

The district court denied Oliver’s habeas petition.

In the opinion up for certiorari yesterday, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit cites cases from multiple sister circuits that all essentially found the same as the Fifth Circuit which was that "The jury’s use of the Bible during the sentencing phase of Oliver’s trial amounted to an improper external influence on the jury’s deliberations. However, Oliver has failed to rebut the state court’s factual finding that the Bible did not prejudice the jury’s decision."

The Supreme Court of the United States decided yesterday NOT to review this case by denying certiorari.

ANALYSIS

While I don't want to encourage a public policy the promotes reviewing the internal workings of the jury room after every trial - which would cause 1,000's of "mini-trials" about jury behavior after every trial which, in turn, would cause lots or problems such as further fear of reasonable people to be jurors and massive costs for the smallest trial - I find the courts' reasoning in this and the cited cases to be faulty. All of the courts in this case and the cited cases find that use of the Bible during sentencing is improper. With that, I agree entirely. However, they then find it to essentially be harmless error because the trial courts found that the Bible did not "prejudice the jury's decision."

WHAT? In this and other cases, people brought the Bible into the room, looked up passages DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE FACTS OF THE CASE AT HAND and read those passages out loud to the jury. One guy in a cited case even studied the Bible at home and made a "pro-killing-the-defendant vs. anti-killing-the-defendant" checklist of passages he found and brought that list into the jury room and shared it. In this case, the passage most cited by the jury members was Numbers 35:16: "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 courts characterize all of this as analogous to a situation where a juror quotes folklore or common sayings from memory. It is a part of life and and part of common wisdom, they observe.

There are so many things wrong here I don't know where to begin.

First, if these passages are a part of common wisdom, then why do people have to search high and low through the book to find applicable passages? Answer: Because these passages are NOT as common as folklore and "sayings." These are much more obscure and have to be sought out. What IS part of common folklore is the concept that the Bible is the highest law of God. That's it. While there are surely SOME passages that are part of common folklore (e.g. The ever-misunderstood 'cast the first stone' story, etc) the fact that in every case the jurors "searched" the Bible for applicable passages shows us that the quoted passages themselves are NOT part of 'common wisdom.' The Christian thinks, "I know that the Bible is God's law. I don't know off of the top of my head what it says about this so I better look it up and do whatever it says [even if I find something that is out-dated, out of context, against the laws of the U.S., or even immoral.]" To think that the jurors were not seeking out instructions on what to do in such cases (i.e. seeking to 'prejudice' themselves by finding instructions from a source external to the legal proceedings before them) is foolish and insluting to our intelligence.

Second, as I said, the Bible is, first and foremost, a set of LAWS - especially the Old Testament. People treat the rules laid out in the Bible with reverence that is MANY ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE greater than little sayings like "A stitch in time saves nine" and the like. To put them on the same level is ludicrous.

Third, since the Bible is a set of LAWS, how would the courts feel is instead of the Bible, the jury had pulled out the code of laws of a foreign country, say....Iran, and analyzed those laws prior to deciding which penalty to administer? Seriously, imagine it. The jurors pull out the Iranian Code, look up a bunch of rules about what to do when a person kills another with an "iron implement" (all of which say that he should be executed), read these Iranian laws aloud to each other and pass the Iranian law books around pointing to the passages in question, and then sentence the man to death. I strongly suspect we would have a different opinion today if those were the facts.

Fourth, ... NUMBERS? You used NUMBERS? What happened to the majority of the New Testament? (Not that the NT is all love and peace, but that is another story.) Why is it that when the death penalty and welfare are up for discussion, the Christians reach for the Old Testament and when they want to feel good about how nice they are to each other they reach for the New Testament? Isn't it odd that when we atheists argue that God is a vicious maniac who murdered AT LEAST 30,000,000 people in the Bible including tens of thousands of completely innocent infants, the Christians say "Bah. That's the OLD Testament! We live under a New Covenant now!" But when they want to string up a criminal, they dive right on into the Old Testament?

Fifth, why did they choose the ONE passage that matches EXACTLY the fact pattern of this case? "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." Why not any of the other of the 774,746 total words in the Bible. Why these? Give up? They were seeking guidance on what to do with this specific fact pattern. Not a fact pattern about adultery or spilling your seed on the floor or children who talk back to their parents. Not even fact patterns from Numbers that talk about killing people with wood or with their hands or a number of other ways. They specifically used the one about an instrument of iron used to kill someone. To pretend that they were not prejudiced byb the law they found in the Bible that fits the fact pattern of the crime is to stick our heads in the sand.

Sixth, why did the Jurors not immediately kill the criminal themselves? Just 3 lines down from the verse they cited so often, the Bible very clearly instructs them to kill the murder on sight. It clearly tells us that "the revenger of blood" must murder the murderer just as soon as he sees him. (35:19 "The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him." 35:21 "Or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he die: he that smote him shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer: the revenger of blood shall slay the murderer, when he meeteth him.") Again, why use the verse that is 3 above that one to kill him yet ignore the verses that tell you to do it yourself? Who else by the jury is the "revenger of blood?" The answer, of course, is that the Christians are using morality from other places in the Bible and mostly found OUTSIDE the Bible to decide to ignore those passages that they find imorral or unpleseant. That they find this OK when dealing with the life and death of a fellow human is staggering. The hypocrisy and blindness to logic continues to astound.

Finally, have you SEEN what ELSE Numbers tells us to do in the realm of justice? Here are just a few rules and quotes from Numbers related to justice (note the total LACK of justice) and compassion for criminals:

(List taken from http://skepticsannotatedbible.com and cited appropriately.)

1. God shows his hospitality with the admonition: "The stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death." 1:51, 3:10, 3:38
2. Two of Aaron's sons are killed by God for "offering strange fire before the Lord." 3:4
3. Don't touch or "go in to see when the holy things are covered." God kills people who touch or look at covered holy things. 4:15, 20
4. God tells the people to expel from camp "every leper, every one that hath an issue, and whoever is defiled by the dead." So by God's instructions, the sick are abandoned and left to suffer and die alone. 5:1-4
5. The Law of Jealousies. If a man suspects his wife of being unfaithful, he reports it to the priest. The priest then makes her drink some "bitter water." If she is guilty, the water makes her thigh rot and her belly swell. If innocent, no harm done -- the woman is free and will "conceive seed." In any case, "the man shall be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity." 5:11-31
6. If you don't keep the Passover you'll be "cut off" from your people. 9:13
7. "And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it." (He had his hearing aid on.) He then burned the complainers alive. That'll teach them. 11:1
8. God promises to give them "flesh to eat," not for just a few days, but "for a whole month, until it come out of your nostrils, and it be loathsome to you." Yuck. 11:20
9. "And while the flesh [of the quails] was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. "The Bible isn't too clear about what these poor folks did to upset God so much; all it says is that they had "lusted." 11:33
10. Miriam and Aaron (Moses' brother and sister) criticize Moses for marrying an Ethiopian woman and thus breaking the law of God. But God makes it clear that his rules don't apply to his favorites, and he strikes Miriam with leprosy. Notice that only Miriam is punished, though both she and Aaron complained. 12:1, 9-10
11. More plagues and pestilence sent by God. God repeats one of his favorite promises: "your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness." 14:12, 29, 14:32-37
12. God punishes the children for the failings of their great-great grandfathers. 14:18
13. God killed those that murmured against him with a plague. 14:36-37
14. "If any soul sin through ignorance ..." but how can someone sin through ignorance? Don't you have to know that an action is wrong for it to be sinful? Oh well, if you do happen to sin through ignorance, you can be forgiven by God if you kill some animals. 15:27-30
15. The Israelites find a man picking up sticks on the sabbath. God commands them to kill him by throwing rocks at him. 15:32-36
16. Because of a dispute between Korah and Moses, God has the ground open up and swallow Korah, Dathan, and Abiram "and their wives, and their sons, and their little children." Then, just for the hell of it, God has a fire burn to death 250 "men that offered incense." 16:20-35
17. After God killed Korah, his family, and 250 innocent bystanders, the people complained saying, "ye have killed the people of the Lord." So God, who doesn't take kindly to criticism, sends a plague on the people. And "they that died in the plague were 14,700." 16:41-50
18. God threatens to kill those who murmur. To which the people reply, "Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish .... Shall we be consumed with dying?" 17:12-13
19. Stay away from holy things and places -- like churches. God might have to kill you if you get too close.18:3, 22, 32
20. God shows us how to make new friends by saying : "The stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death." 18:7
21. God describes once again the procedure for ritualistic animal sacrifices. such rituals must be extremely important to God, since he makes their performance a "statute" and "covenant" forever. 18:17-19
22. The purification of the unclean. These absurd rituals, cruel sacrifices, and unjust punishments are vitally important to God. They are to be "a perpetual statute" for all humankind. 19:1-22
23. Moses is punished for hitting the rock with his staff (like he did before in Ex.17:6) to get water, rather than just speaking to the rock (as God asked him to do this time). For messing up the magic trick, Moses will never get to the promised land. 20:8-12
24. "And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities." This verse demonstrates the power of prayer: If you ask God, he will destroy entire cities for you. 21:3
25. God sends "fiery serpents" to bite his chosen people, and many of them die. 21:6
26. God delivers the Amorites into Moses' hands. (You're in God hands with Moses.) So Moses does the usual thing, killing everyone "until their was none left alive." 21:34-35
27. God says to Balaam, "If men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them." Men come, and Balaam goes with them, just as God had commanded." And God's anger was kindled because he went" -- but he was just following God's instructions! 22:20-22
28. After the people "commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab," Moses has them all killed. Then God tells Moses to hang their dead bodies up in front of him; God says that this will satisfy him. 25:1-5
29. When one of the Israelite men brings home a foreign woman, "Phinehas (Aaron's grandson) sees them and throws a spear "through the man .. and the woman through her belly." This act pleases God so much that "the plague was stayed from the children of Israel." But not before 24,000 had died. 25:6-9
30. For impaling the interracial couple, God rewards Phinehas and his sons with the everlasting priesthood. 25:10-13
31. God tells Moses how to care for his neighbors by saying: "Vex the Midianites, and smite them." 25:16-17
32. The ground swallow Korah and his companions and a fire consumes 250 men. 26:10
33. "And Nadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before the Lord." When you go camping avoid making any unusual fires. 26:61
34. Under God's direction, Moses' army defeats the Midianites. They kill all the adult males, but take the women and children captive. When Moses learns that they left some live, he angrily says: "Have you saved all the women alive? Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." So they went back and did as Moses (and presumably God) instructed, killing everyone except for the virgins. In this way they got 32,000 virgins -- Wow! (Even God gets some of the booty -- including the virgins.) 31:1-54
35. God killed all the Egyptian firstborn. 33:4
36. God tells Moses to exterminate the residents of Canaan and destroy all of their religious symbols and possessions. 33:50-52
37. But if the Israelites don't kill them all, then God will make them pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides. And he will do unto the Israelites as he planned to do to the inhabitants of Canaan. 33:55-56
38. "The revenger of blood" must murder the murderer just as soon as he sees him. 35:19, 21
39. When a murder is committed the blood pollutes the land. The only way to cleanse it is to spill more blood by killing the killer. 35:30, 33

And this is JUST IN NUMBERS!

Don't get me wrong. Criminals should be punished. I would ock this criminal up for the rest of his life without any possibility for parole. he should die in jail. I personally have been against the death penalty sinnce I was young, mostly because 1) too many mistakes can be made (as we are now finding out more and more with the thousands of DNA cases resulting in the release of wrongly convicted people) and 2) I don't want to live in a society where blood lust rules the day. I am constaly shocked that Christians and I do not agree on this issue, but that's faith-based logic for you!

As for this line of cases, it is a travesty that the courts shut their eyes to this and pretend that "the jury was not prejudiced by the Bible that was an improper influence upon them." It makes them look like the trial in Alice in Wonderland: "Sentence first. Verdict later."



UPDATE: After a technical issue and an absence, I have had to re-post all of my old posts. As a result there will be many posts listed as published today, Dec 3, 2009, that were posted sometime earlier in the year, but I do not know the exact date. this post is one of them.