2009: Khristian Oliver, Bible basher
November 5th, 2009 John Temple
(Thanks to John Temple, author of The Last Lawyer: The Fight to Save Death Row Inmates and journalism professor at West Virginia University, for the guest post. -ed.)
Barring a last-minute stay of execution, Khristian Oliver will be put to death late this afternoon.
(Update: Khristian Oliver has indeed been executed as scheduled. His likeness lives on in an altarpiece made by his father, an artist.)
In 1998, Oliver, now 32, shot and killed a man whose home he was burglarizing. Oliver’s guilt isn’t being questioned. The argument his attorneys and supporters are using to stave off his upcoming execution has to do with how the jurors in his case handled his sentencing.
An Oct. 15 story in The Guardian described the scene in the jury room this way:
A clutch of jurors huddled in the corner with one reading aloud from the Book of Numbers: “The murderer shall surely be put to death” and “The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer.”
Another juror highlighted passages which she showed to a fellow juror: “And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, the murderer shall surely be put to death.” (Apparently one of the same passages, Numbers 35:16, in fuller context.)
Juries debating this most difficult decision often reach for Biblical guidance, and there are no shortage of verses that relate to capital punishment, including the famous “eye for an eye” passage(s). Courts have ruled this improper, not because the Bible is a religious document, but because it is extrinsic evidence, meaning it was not properly introduced as evidence.
The same issue arose in the central case in my new book, The Last Lawyer: The Fight to Save Death Row Inmates.
To write the book, I shadowed a North Carolina legal team for four and a half years as they fought to overturn the death sentence of a man named Bo Jones. The attorneys crisscrossed the back roads of North Carolina to track down and interview most of the jurors from the trial, two of whom chased them off their property. In the end, the attorneys found one woman who claimed that a Baptist minister on the jury had brought a Bible into the room and quoted passages from it.
In the end, this claim didn’t help Bo Jones. A federal appeals judge threw it out, saying his lawyers hadn’t proved that the Bible-quoting had influenced the jury’s verdict. But Jones’s attorneys had plenty of other arguments up their sleeves, while Oliver’s supporters seem to be putting most of their emphasis on the Bible argument.
It remains to be seen whether this will bewas not enough to spare his life.
Also On This Date
Possibly Related Executions
- 2001: Robert Lee Massie, who spent a lifetime dying
- 2001: Larry Keith Robison
- 2007: Michael Richard, whose time ran out
Entry Filed under: 21st Century, Capital Punishment, Common Criminals, Crime, Death Penalty, Execution, Guest Writers, Lethal Injection, Murder, Other Voices, Ripped from the Headlines, Texas, Theft, USA
Tags: 2000s, 2009, bible, bo jones, christianity, john temple, juries, khristian oliver, literally executed today, november 5, religion
March 1st, 2010 at 11:14 am
I am wondering what the proper punishment for a jury, wrongfully recommending the death penalty, would be?
What does the Bible say about that? Is it still an eye for an eye? Could the family of the wrongfully executed person expect all the jurors to face execution? At least the family would know that the jurors are guilty unlike their family member.
The problem by using the Bible is that, in my opinion, you can’t start dismembering it by ones choosing. ie you can’t choose what passages to follow and which to not. The Bible is no compromise. If you choose to follow it literally in your conviction of murderers, then what do you do with passages like:
“If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. So you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel will hear, and be afraid.”
Powerful stuff…
November 8th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
And God bless you, Graeme!
November 8th, 2009 at 4:22 am
Kevin
I do understand; and our societies should do much more for these people.
I had uncles in WW2 - got along with them like a house on fire - Uncle Dave took shrapnel to the grave, from the Middle East and always jolly Uncle Wallace joined the airforce with his mates, the way to go he reckoned, and did some pretty spectacular stuff. Both modest.
God Bless you
Graeme
November 7th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Well, I was making a correcting, and I must have slid over the submit button! I’ll now continue…
…or seeing the pain in my father’s eyes whenever he was forced to discuss the war), that the cost of freedom can be very high, indeed.
Anyway, I respect your choice of pacifism, but I know in my heart that it is a road I’ll never travel down. The stakes are too high in an unstable world, and used properly, using force (yes, violence) may be the only thing which stops evil in its tracks.
November 7th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Graeme–
You are both articulate and intelligent, and obviously well-read. Your knowledge of past conflicts; especially the American experience at war, is impressive indeed. I too am in my 50’s (54 to be exact) and I have always viewed history, especially the history of military conflict, as an important element to understanding ourselves. And it is not a pretty picture, as you well know. I was surprised to see you speak of the American Civil War, and you’re correct in your assessment of the horrendous wounds suffered in that war, and the egregious lack of the medical field to deal with it.
My own family has been touched by war: My father served with the Marines in WW2, and his brother, a navy man aboard the USS Astoria, was killed during the battle of Savo Island on August 9, 1942. My dad’s uncle was in the U.S. Army, an infantryman, and was killed on December 10, 1944 in Germany.
As such, it was clear to us kids, growing up and learning those things which happened to the family members we never got to know (or seeing the pain in my father’s whenever he was forced to discuss the wart)eyes , that the cost of freedom can be very high, indeed.
November 7th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Kevin
Foregiveness by people to people is not based on request. Loving Father forgive us our debts, As we have forgiven our debtors (Matthew 6: 12, 13; For if (”I”) forgive men their trespasses, (’my”) heavenly Father also will forgive (”me”)(Matthew 6: 14, RSV - the wonderful poetry of King James updated slightly) - it is not for the benefit of the trespasser but for the divine liberation of the loving forgiver, resting in the arms of his Loving Father. Matthew: Jesus yoke is easy, burden is light.
Forgiveness has to be given full stop, and this is the essence of the unqualified love, at the heart of the New Testament, of the ministry of Jesus, love. Look at the understated representation of power of Jesus; a person who could have called on unlimited supernatural power does not even do so to repel the abhorrent and cruel humiliation, before the actual crucifixion. I cannot be Our Loving Father, only reflect him by conducting myself true to the example of Jesus.
Yes I was troubled by the individual / state dichotomy re: the scriptures; however, became a pacificist in my 50s in the last few years. The history of war shows mankind at his most out of control, without exception, causing suffering beyond comprehension, down the eons, to this day, explaining the European Treaty of Westphalia, after the horrendous 30 Years War, 1618 - 1648, including marauding mercenaries, running roughshod without opposition over the countryside of Germany; Holland and Sweden, of mayhem, established the idea of nation-state sovereignty to protect people within borders, but even that has not been enough: 20th Century onwards - Germany; Turkey;the Soviet Union; the Balkans; Argentina; Greece; Chile; Spain; Sri Lanka; Burma; Soviet Union; China; Uganda; Somalia; The Lebanon; Zimbabwe; South Africa - Mr Nelson Mandela, exceptional after watching 28 plus years pass behind bars is freed to become President and insists there be no recriminations. In the end - Forgive them for they know what they do: reverberates down the ages for all of us, without exception, in our daily conduct.
Pacifism, a difficult decision given my natural bent; but there it is in the “Unheeded Christ”, the unmistakable verses of Matthew.
I am not aware Jesus ever lifted a finger, t oeven suggest assualt, yet Jesus always reads as an immensely strong character.
American Civil War: the men wounded in that probably suffered the most in history from combat; the firepower relative to protection; speed of transport; and medical development at the time, which led to terrible illnesses.
For any one who has been involved in conflagration I do not regard any less then myself; but this is true for the whole brotherhood / sisterhood.
I think of the WW1 - about declarations of war before official hostilities existed between UK and Germany, both itching to see who had supremacy with their new found miliatry might in which men time and time were ordered from trecnhes to be mowed down in hails of bullets, sacrificially, requiring the US to save and ensure an unstable Europe that Hitler lacerated.
In the Pacific War your navy had control of the allied waging of war, and would insist in retaking every island back to Nippon, by strafing each island for twenty four hours and then land a combination of GI and Marines, who did not work well together, in any event, to be mowed down by the Japanese who were protected by tunnels, and this happened time and time again. It was a modern hi-tech version of the WW1 trenches.
I pray that hornets’ nest feeling goes.
God Bless
Graeme
November 7th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Thanks, Fiz! You know, I feel like I’ve stuck my head into a hornets nest, LOL!
November 7th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Kevin, I got to know you elsewhere and liked you as a person, and you are also my sort of Christian. That’s is a true internet miracle.
November 7th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Graeme–
Forgiveness can only be granted to those who ask for it. God does not extend forgiveness to people who do not ask for it; neither will he allow anyone into Heaven who does not come to his son Jesus for salvation. Now, Jesus himself talked of the narrow road in life, and how few people find it. You are constantly telling about God’s love, and I hear nothing of the person’s responsibility to repent and change their evil ways. Yes, God will forgive, but there are qualifiers to it, my friend. It isn’t a free ride.
Sometimes I think that folks like you, who talk of nothing else but “the Father’s love” know very little about God in the first place. Don’t forget that it was Jesus who said people shouldn’t be concerned by those who can only kill the body, but should (I’m paraphrasing here) be concerned about God who has the power to cast both soul and body into hell.
Think about it!
November 7th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Well, DeSales, language is a wonderful thing, as I’m sure you know. By language, we convey our thoughts and feelings to others; and for most of humanity, we do it quite clearly: From the political deals struck by the heads of state, to two men getting into a brawl at a local bar. It’s how we get our point across in life. As such, Sarah B conveyed to me her extreme differences with my opinion (but wait, there’s more!) and she did so in a way as to be, well, mildly rude, and perhaps a little insulting. Now that does not bother me, but I point this out to let you know what her language meant to me. It was very clear.
God understands when a country or an individual is committing evil (read Germany, say, during WW2) and HIS law is, of course, higher than any civil law. But a country under normal civil law, even apart from God’s law, establishes order and stability in a society, thereby creating a safe environment for the citizens, and that is (in my opinion) God’s will. Part of that will is keeping society safe from murderers, and the use of capital punishment goes hand in hand (or should!) with a society which desires to live within a system of laws where their are consequences (AND EXTREME CONSEQUENCES) to those who murder the innocent.
Anyway, I’m sure we can never agree on the issue of the death penalty (or perhaps, many other issues) but I do wish you well, and if you ask any other questions, I will try my best to answer them.