WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has left in place lower court rulings ordering hearings over jurors in two North Carolina death penalty trials who reached beyond the jury room for biblical references to help their deliberations.
The justices recently rejected North Carolina’s appeal of the two rulings by the federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia.
In one case, a juror called her father in search of a biblical verse to help her decide between life and death for defendant Jason Wayne Hurst, who was sentenced to death for the 2002 shooting death of an acquaintance in Asheboro, North Carolina.
The father pointed her to a verse containing the phrase “an eye for an eye.”
The appeals court ordered hearings to determine if jurors were improperly influenced.
- Posted July 06, 2015
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
New hearings in death penalty cases allowed
headlines Macomb
- Macomb County judge honored
- Mount Clemens woman pleads no contest to charge stemming from threats sent to Mount Clemens mayor
- MDHHS seeks applications for Rural Health Transformation Program Workforce for Wellness Initiative
- Prosecutor warns of fake jail bond scam targeting families
- Governor welcomes new unemployment protections for survivors of domestic violence
headlines National
- Chemerinsky: Supreme Court leaves many Second Amendment issues unresolved
- ACLU and BigLaw firm use ‘Orange is the New Black’ in hashtag effort to promote NY jail reform
- After emergencies mar bar exam, New York State Bar Association aims to add new procedures
- When you get blasted by your own canon
- Ex-lawyer seeks bar reinstatement after US House primary win
- Trump selects newly confirmed federal judge for open seat on 5th Circuit
