USA - Texas. Khristian Oliver, 32, white, was executed

Khristian Oliver, 32, white, was executed today, in a case that gained notoriety because jurors may have consulted a Bible to justify his death sentence. Oliver was condemned for the March 17, 1998 slaying of 64-year-old Joe Collins who interrupted the break-in at his rural home. Oliver's lawyers argued that jurors who improperly brought Bibles with them into deliberations without the knowledge of the trial judge in Nacogdoches County likened the rifle to a biblical iron object. In Chapter 35 of Numbers, a murderer who uses an iron object to kill "shall surely be put to death." The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said evidence was contradictory on whether jurors consulted the Bible before or after deliberations and that several jurors testified that the Bible "was not a focus of their discussions." Oliver becomes the 20th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 443rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Oliver becomes the 43rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1179th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.