Death sentence thrown out because jurors used Bible

The Bible, the court said in a sharply divided decision, constituted an improper outside influence and a reliance on what the court called a ‘higher authority’, reports The New York Times. The ruling involved the conviction of Robert Harlan, who was found guilty in 1995 of raping and murdering a cocktail waitress near Denver. The State Supreme Court\'s decision changes Harlan’s death sentence to life in prison without parole. The dissenting judges said the majority had confused the internal codes of right and wrong that juries were expected to possess in such weighty moral matters with the outside influences that are always to be avoided, like newspaper articles or television programmes about the case. Full report in The New York Times