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DENVER (Reuters) - A judge overturned a convicted murderer's death sentence because jurors consulted Biblical passages such as an 'eye for an eye' during death-penalty deliberations. Robert Harlan was convicted and sentenced to death in 1995 for the murder of Rhonda Maloney, a waitress who was driving home from work when Harlan forced her car off the road. Harlan also shot and paralyzed good Samaritan Jaquie Creazzo who tried to come to the woman's aid. While noting that Harlan's crimes 'were among the most grievous, heinous and reprehensible' he had seen in 18 years on the bench, Adams County District Judge John J. Vigil said Friday that court officials failed to properly sequester the jury. Jury members stayed in a hotel during deliberations and court officials made sure newspapers were not delivered to their rooms, but the jurors did find bibles in the rooms. 'The jury supervision performed in this case was extremely negligent and appallingly lax,' Vigil wrote in his ruling. 'Jury resort to biblical code has no place in a constitutional death penalty proceeding...'
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