Kathleen Rupp. Note. Capital Hypocrisy: Does Compelling Jurors to Impose the Death Penalty Without Spiritual Guidance Violate Jurors' First Amendment Rights? 48 AM. CRIM. L. REV. 217 (2011)
INTRODUCTION: In 1992, Dorenda Brokofsky and her fellow jurors found Todd Willingham guilty of setting a fire that killed his children, and sentenced him to death. Willingham was executed by the state of Texas in 2004; however, newfound evidence suggests that he may have been innocent of the crime. Upon learning of the existence of possibly exonerating evidence, Brokofsky remarked, “I don’t like the fact now that maybe this man was executed by our word . . . And I don’t like the fact that I may have to face my God and explain what I did.” This tale demonstrates the profound role that religion plays in capital sentencing: jurors are aware that their decision may result in the death of a human being, and the realization that the jury may have ordered a defendant to his execution on faulty evidence can be spiritually and emotionally traumatizing. Despite the difficult spiritual decisions that jurors must make in deciding whether or not to sentence a person to death, several courts have held that jurors should not be able to consult their own Bibles for spiritual guidance during sentencing.
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