California Supreme Court Rejects Murderer's Complaint On Use Of Bible In Jury Deliberations

In People v. Williams, (CA Sup. Ct., Dec. 28, 2006), the California Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a convicted murderer's argument that he should be granted a new trial because a juror had brought several pages copied from a Bible into the jury room and had read passages from them during penalty phase deliberations. The Court concluded that, given the circumstances-- including another juror saying immediately after the reading that religion should play no part in their decision-- it was not substantially likely that any juror was actually biased against the defendant because of the Bible reading. Yesterday's Bakersfield Californian reports on the decision.