The Bible as Legal Cheat Sheet?

Interesting story in the NY Times today, about a death sentence verdict that was thrown out because jurors had consulted the Bible as part of their deliberation. Apparently the issue isn't so much the use of religion as a deliberative factor, as that jurors were relying on "extraneous material" to make their decision.

In my opinion that's a fair principle to have in place-- it's difficult enough that jurors come with so many different moral premises as it is, without throwing in explicit consideration of religious texts and viewpoints to make things even more time-consumingly counterproductive, not to mention overtly contentious. [And, as the article points out, "the Bible is hardly monolithic about what constitutes justice". Even within one religion, there could be quite a brawl].

And it's not really about religion per se-- it would be an equal distraction from the facts of the case and laws at hand for jurors to bring in a book by Austin Sarat (he-whose-CV-is-longer-than-god) on the death penalty in legal theory. Even if such a book "forms the basis of [a juror's] moral universe".

Somehow I rather doubt the religious-right will be picking up on that key bit of nuance though...