Jurors & Spiritual Advisors

[RJLipkin at aol.com]

     I heard the tail end of an NPR discussion about whether  jurors in death penalty cases (exclusively?)should be permitted to discuss issues pertaining to their case with spiritual advisors. My inclination is to say no because most of the persuasive arguments for permitting this cannot, in my view, be restricted to people who are ordained clergy persons. (I think those in favor of this permission tend to embrace this restriction.) By way of illustration, I have two friends, one a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the other a democratic socialist rejecting religion, both of whom have given me better spiritual advice than any rabbi I've ever known. Thus, if jurors making life and death situations (constitutionally and perhaps morally) cannot be prohibited from consulting their clergy people, I should not be prohibited, should I become a juror, from consulting my LDS friend, who was, but is not now a clergy   person and my democratic socialist friend who would never   consider becoming a clergy person. The reasons for the   permission would undue the rule. I leave aside arguments for and against the rule.

Bobby

Robert Justin Lipkin
Professor of Law
Widener University School of Law
Delaware