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Juror misconduct won't affect ruling

BY JASON KOTOWSKI, Californian staff writer
e-mail: jkotowski@bakersfield.com | Friday, Dec 29 2006 10:30 PM

Last Updated: Friday, Dec 29 2006 10:34 PM

A man who raped and murdered a Bakersfield woman after returning items he had stolen from her home still faces execution despite a California Supreme Court ruling that found jurors in his trial engaged in misconduct.

Bob Russell Williams Jr., convicted of raping and murdering Mary Breck in 1994, will be executed unless the ruling is overturned on further appeals. Thursday's ruling found that, although the jurors engaged in misconduct, it didn't influence the verdict.

According to the ruling, a male juror had read several passages from the Bible to a female juror who was having a difficult time deciding whether to vote for the death penalty for Williams. The male juror, in an evidentiary hearing, testified he had copied Bible verses and brought them to the jury room because the female juror said something about the Bible saying you're not supposed to judge others.

Immediately after the male juror read the Bible passages in the jury room, another juror said religion should play no part in the decision and there was no further discussion on the matter, the ruling said. Justice Carlos R. Moreno, who wrote the decision, agreed with the trial court that there was no substantial likelihood that the biblical passages influenced jurors.

The verses that were read "did not propound an alternative set of rules or standards about when the death penalty should be imposed, but merely counseled deference to governmental authority and affirmed the validity of sitting in judgment of one's fellow human beings according to the law," the ruling said.

Williams strangled Breck to death after raping and sodomizing her, according to his statement to detectives. He was taken into custody by California Highway Patrol officers after a high-speed chase.

When asked why he raped her, Williams said he "just wanted to hurt her," according to his statement to detectives.