Church & State separate ? Not in Colorado

[scaeagles]

I agree, MBC, when it comes to guilt or innocense. However, giving the death penalty is a matter of opinion, is it not? Whether this defendant deserves the "ultimate" penalty? There have been juries in the past where one person says that they have personal beliefs that forbid them from ever giving the death penalty. Should any juror with strong personal convictions be eliminated from the jury pool?

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Should any juror with strong personal convictions be eliminated from the jury pool?

I think this happens all the time. I know I've been "thanked and excused" on cases where I stated I didn't support the death penalty.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

I think this happens all the time. I know I've been "thanked and excused" on cases where I stated I didn't support the death penalty.

Ah, but that is before any part of the trial starts. Once you're in, you're in, and I would suggest that not doing everything possible to sway other jurors to your point of view completely does harm to the system overall. Are not the jurors supposed to deliberate? If it were quoted would that make a difference? So the opinions of these people do not matter because they had to refer to a document instead of knowing various Biblical quotes.