IPFS News Link • Death Penalty
Texas man faces execution after jurors consult Bible to decide fate
• APIt later emerged that while deciding whether he should be given the death penalty, jurors consulted the Bible. Four jury members admitted that several copies had been in the jury room and that highlighted passages were passed around.
At one point, a juror reportedly read aloud from a copy, including the passage: "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."
3 Comments in Response to Texas man faces execution after jurors consult Bible to decide fate
This reporter certainly shows both ignorance and bias. Our nation and its founding documents were founded on the laws of God, as given in the Bible. The fault with our judicial system is not with the laws or penalties of the Bible, but in the unjust system whereby a man is condemned without proof.
To say that a penalty should not be given because of consultation with the Bible is silly because people put their hand on the Bible and swear or affirm that they will tell the truth. This practice stems from the respect our predecessors had for the Word of God. Sure, there can be and has been abuses of the Bibleand religion. But they are the exception in America and not the rule. The first amendment does not make a separation of church and state.
First, it prevents the state from making any law respecting the establishment of a religion, in other words, no state religion. The Bible is not a religion, it is the Word of God. Many various and opposing religions revere it and recognize it as the Word of God. Congress even printed the Bible when England set up an embargo during one of our wars with them.
Second, it prevents the state from prohibiting the free exercise of religion. Religion is the duty one owes to God, and the manner of discharging that duty. So a person has a religious right to consult the Book he considers to be the Word of God for guidance in a decision.
There is no room here to go into the wisdom of capital punishment and the peace it affords a society that exercises the other laws of God correctly. But the anti-capital punishment crowd would only punish all of society further by forcing all of us to pay to feed those who have stolen other people's lives for years on end. It makes no sense at all.
Capital punishment is a great deterrent if all aspects of the law are properly executed, such as a speedy, but fair trial. When years and years go by, the deterrent effect is greatly diminished. The constitutional principle of a speedy trial comes right from the pages of the Bible, which our founding fathers knew better than most "preachers" of today.
"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Ecclesiastes 8:11
but this use of the Bible to decide life or death in a capital trial is deeply, deeply troubling," she said.
This is troubling, trying to mix truth & ethics & even common sense, (imagine that) with commerce. Didn't the Lord turn over the money changers tables in the temple?
Let me leave you with a quote by Red Beckman
The power of the judge or prosecutor over the jury is in direct proportion to the jury’s ignorance.but this use of the Bible to decide life or death in a capital trial is deeply, deeply troubling," she said.
This is troubling, trying to mix truth & ethics & even common sense, (imagine that) with commerce. Didn't the Lord turn over the money changers tables in the temple?
Let me leave you with a quote by Red Beckman
The power of the judge or prosecutor over the jury is in direct proportion to the jury’s ignorance.