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Contact Board of Pardons and Paroles to Urge Clemency for Khristian Oliver, Whose Jury Consulted the Bible During Deliberations on Death Penalty

By "Persian Cowboy"

Kristian Oliver, who is scheduled for execution in Texas on Thursday, November 5, was sentenced to death by a jury whose members consulted the Bible during their deliberations of whether Oliver should receive the death penalty. During deliberations on sentencing, one of the jurors apparently read the following passage aloud to his fellow jurors: ?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.? Another juror, a death penalty supporter, later told the media that ?about 80 per cent? of the jurors had ?brought scripture into the deliberation?, and that if civil law and biblical law were in conflict, the latter should prevail. And he said that if he had been told he could not consult the Bible, ?I would have left the courtroom...continue to full post

Full post as published by Texas Death Penalty Blog on November 02, 2009 (boomark / email).