By all accounts, Robert Harlan’s crime was a heinous one. He was…

Question Answered step-by-step By all accounts, Robert Harlan’s crime was a heinous one. He was… By all accounts, Robert Harlan’s crime was a heinous one. He was convicted in 1995 in Colorado of kidnapping, raping, and murdering a young woman and shooting—and leaving paralyzed—another woman who had stopped to help the first. Judge John J. Vigil, who sentenced Harlan, noted that his crimes were among the most horrible he had ever seen and admitted that the death penalty was utterly justified. Yet Vigil felt compelled to overturn Harlan’s death sentence. The reason: some of the sequestered jurors had used their hotel Bibles during deliberation over sentencing. Although it is unclear whether Bibles were actually carried into the deliberation room, several jurors had handwritten notes with scriptural passages that support the death (in particular, Leviticus 24:20-21, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has disfigured a man, he shall be disfigured. He who kills a beast shall make it good; and he who kills a man shall be put to death.”) Since biblical code is not part of Colorado law, the use of these passages, according to Harlan’s defense team, was improper. According to the judge, it was unconstitutional because the verdict had been unduly influenced. Prosecutors countered that sequestering jurors means shielding them from media, not filtering out their own moral beliefs. (from *Morality Play: Case Studies in Ethics* )The video lecture focused on justifying a decision using reasons everyone can accept. Sometimes that is easier said than done. Consider all of the complexities involved in this situation. Was the judge right to consider the use of a Bible in a jury deliberation an “undue” influence? Arts & Humanities Philosophy PHIL 2628 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)