A convicted murderer who raped a woman for two hours, paralyzed a good Samaritan and left his victim's nude body under a remote bridge was spared execution Monday because jurors consulted the Bible when deciding his fate.
A divided Colorado Supreme Court ruled 3-2 that biblical passages considered by jurors who in 1995 condemned Robert Harlan to death may have unduly influenced their decision.
The court, overturning the jury's recommendation, upheld the decision by a lower court, imposing a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Bob Grant, the former Adams County district attorney who prosecuted Harlan, said the case cries out for the death penalty.
"If not Robert Harlan, who?" Grant said. "Good Lord. This is not prejudicial given the incredible heinous nature of Mr. Harlan's act and the overwhelming evidence in favor of his guilt."One of the jurors who brought her Bible to deliberations said she believes the Supreme Court's ruling means that a higher power had different plans for Harlan.
"I was not a Christian when this (the trial) happened, but I was led to the Bible, and I believe God was in control for all of this," Lana Ochoa said Monday. "But if God has spared him, then God has plans for him. If they choose to let Robert Harlan live, then they have a purpose. It was God's will."
Harlan, 40, has been on Colorado's death row for a decade for the kidnap, rape and murder of Rhonda Maloney, 25. He also was convicted of shooting and paralyzing Jaquie Creazzo, 42, a passerby who attempted to help Maloney when she tried to escape.
Adams County District Judge John Vigil overturned the death sentence in 2003 after learning that jurors consulted the Bible and discussed such passages as "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" during deliberations.
The high court concluded Monday that the "unauthorized introduction into the jury room of the Bible and its text commanding the death sentence for murder could influence a typical juror to vote for death instead of life imprisonment.
"Consequently, we must uphold the trial court's judgment vacating the death sentence and sentencing Harlan to life imprisonment without parole," the court said in the opinion, written by Justice Gregory Hobbs.
But in a sharply worded dissent, Justice Nancy Rice called the majority opinion "demeaning" to jurors, saying it assumes they can't be trusted to think for themselves.
Rice questioned the difference between jurors who have biblical passages committed to memory and those who, as in this case, referred to the written word.
"To presume that jurors who have a religious background cannot distinguish between the written biblical passages referred here and the written jury instructions . . . is to underestimate their intelligence and to belittle their participation in our legal system," Rice wrote.
Grant, who now heads the Colorado District Attorneys Council, and Adams County First Assistant District Attorney Mike Goodbee said prosecutors will take a hard look at whether to appeal the ruling.
"We owe that to Rhonda Maloney. We owe that to Jaquie Creazzo. We owe that to the death penalty concept in the state of Colorado," Grant said.
Creazzo declined comment through her daughter, Hannah Creazzo.
"She's not giving out any statements now," said Hannah Creazzo. "She's gotten on with her life and she hasn't given him a second thought. If he was getting out, that would be a different story."
Kerry Maloney, Rhonda Maloney's husband, said he is satisfied that Harlan will never see freedom again.
"As long as he stays in prison and doesn't get to do this to anybody else, that's fine," Maloney said. "I just don't want him to hurt anybody else. Even back then I wasn't concerned whether he got the death penalty or life in prison."
Gov. Bill Owens called the court's ruling a hair-splitting decision that was "demeaning to people of faith and prevents justice from being served.
"Even the justices who voted to overturn the penalty agreed that moral values and religious beliefs are important and can be part of the debate among jurors."
"For example, a juror could recite biblical passages from memory," Owens said. "But because of a subjective interpretation that reading the same passage is somehow prejudicial, a convicted killer has avoided the appropriate sentence. I'm disappointed to see that the court would supersede the will of the jury and the people of Colorado regarding the death penalty on such a technicality."
Some jurors consulted various versions of the Bible while they were sequestered, researching passages relating to capital punishment and a citizen's duty to obey the law.
Among the passages discussed during jury deliberations was one from Leviticus, which addresses the concept of an "eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured. Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death."
Two jurors took notes on the passages and reported their findings to other jurors during the next day's deliberations, which concluded with a unanimous vote in favor of a death sentence.
Jurors were not specifically told not to consult the Bible but were repeatedly instructed to base their decision only on what was admitted into evidence during trial.
While jurors may rely on their religious backgrounds and beliefs during deliberations, the court said, this case went too far because a juror brought a Bible into the jury room to consider specific biblical passages during deliberations.
"Some jurors may view biblical texts like the Leviticus passage at issue here as a factual representation of God's will. The text may also be viewed as a legal instruction, issuing from God, requiring a particular and mandatory punishment for murder," the court said.
"We conclude that there is reasonable possibility that the Bible material introduced into the jury room could have influenced a typical juror to vote for the death penalty instead of a life sentence, to Harlan's obvious detriment."
Justices Rice and Rebecca Kourlis dissented because the jurors were questioned and all testified under oath that they weren't influenced by the biblical passages.
The court didn't have to consider the impact of the Bible on a "typical juror," Rice said.
"Rather, we know from the sworn testimony of the jurors themselves that not even one of the jurors was influenced by these biblical passages to vote for the death penalty and that the biblical passages were not prejudicial to Harlan."
Harlan is being housed at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Cañon City. His status on death row is not expected to change until prison officials receive a new sentencing order from the district court.
What happened
Robert Harlan's fatal crime rampage began early Feb. 12, 1994, after 25-year-old cocktail waitress Rhonda Maloney left her job at a Central City casino.
Maloney was driving home when Harlan ran her car off the road and raped her at gunpoint.
Just before 6 a.m. Jaquie Creazzo saw Maloney screaming for help on an Interstate 76 ramp leading to Interstate 25. Maloney, victimized for two hours, said she had just escaped her captor, who had threatened to kill her.
Maloney got into Creazzo's car, and the two headed to the Thornton Police Department with Harlan in pursuit.
Harlan opened fire. Creazzo crashed on the lawn in front of police headquarters. Shot twice, she survived but remains paralyzed from the chest down.
As Harlan dragged Maloney from the car, Creazzo remembered him saying, "You thought you were going to get away, bitch, didn't you?"
Maloney's nude body was found under a bridge near Watkins a week later.
Harlan was convicted and sentenced to death July 1, 1995.
In the ruling
Key points in Monday's decision by the Colorado Supreme Court.
• "We conclude that introduction of the Bible by a juror to demonstrate to another juror a command of death for murder creates a reasonable possibility that a typical juror could have been influenced to vote for a death sentence instead of life."
• "Some jurors may view biblical texts like the Leviticus passage at issue here as a factual representation of God's will. The text may also be viewed as a legal instruction, issuing from God, requiring a particular and mandatory punishment for murder."
• Justice Nancy Rice wrote a dissent that accused the majority of demeaning jurors: "To presume that jurors who have a religious background cannot distinguish between the written biblical passages referenced here and the written jury instructions . . . is to underestimate their intelligence and to belittle their participation in our legal system."
News staff writers Hector Gutierrez and Stuart Steers contributed to this report. lindsays@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5181
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