Nope. When I've sat on juries, we were not allowed to take ANYTHING into the deliberation room. I'm sure it's the same for a capital case.
Some folks don't think that instruction applies to them.
Was this deliberations over guilt or deliberations over sentencing? If it was the latter, this ruling is a farce.
What are they supposed to do decide on sentencing, flip a coin?
Heaven forbid that a jury have access to actual INFORMATION. ;-)
Now I know how to get out of jury duty: bring a Bible to the selection, LOL!
Just because this is the court's rule does not mean that this is the law or even that it is appropriate. Jurors are not to bring in newspaper articles or materials that could be used as evidence in the case, but that prohibition could not be applied to the Bible, or to anything written thousands of years ago.
Unless the Bible was a point of evidence in the case, the fact that certain jurors had written passages from the Bible is simply irrelevant, and does not require the conviction be overturned. This is simply the Judge substituting his judgement for the Jury's, as if he knows better. I don't know why we should even bother with juries if there is not going to be a presumption that their rulings are to be binding.