HOUSTON -- A federal appeals court has ruled that East Texas jurors wrongly used a Bible during deliberations in a capital murder case, but that there isn't enough evidence to show they were prejudiced when they decided to send a Waco man to death row for fatally shooting and bludgeoning a 64-year-old man.
The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes in the case of Khristian Oliver, condemned by a Nacogdoches County jury in 1999, a year after authorities said he and three companions were involved in the break-in and slaying.
Oliver's three accomplices received prison terms ranging from five to 99 years. He got the death penalty, and in his appeals lawyers contended jurors improperly consulted Scripture calling for death as punishment for murder....
