The California Supreme Court today upheld the death penalty for an Oakland man whose prosecutor referred to the "four horsemen of the apocalypse'' during his double murder trial.The court said the biblical reference during the 1991 trial of Cedric Harrison in Alameda County Superior Court was a literary allusion and not an unconstitutional invocation of religion.
Justice Joyce Kennard wrote, "When references to the Bible are involved, the line between literary allusion and religious appeal is often a fine one.''
But Kennard said, "Nevertheless, so long as they do not appeal to religious authority, prosecutors may refer to the Bible in closing arguments to illustrate a point.''
...