The jury considered his Satanism to be a factor that could lead future violent activity. They gave him the death sentence.

Does religion have a place in the courtroom? For example, if a convicted murderer is a Satanist, is that relevant?

Last week, a Texas court ruled yes.

An appellate court in El Paso upheld its ruling for an inmate who argued that revealing his affiliation with the Church of Satan prejudiced the jury who sentenced him to death row, the blog Religion Clause reported.

Last week, the court issued an opinion saying the evidence of defendant Irving Davis’ Satanism was relevant to the case and did not violate his Constitutional freedoms…

Davis was convicted of raping and killing a 15-year-old. He began to identify as a Satanist/Vampirist while in prison.

During his trial, Davis was asked to show the pentagram tattoo on his chest, and the state displayed his religious books, handwritten pledges to the church and violent sketches, all taken from his prison cell.

An expert witness discussed Satanic beliefs and quoted a passage from The Satanic Bible regarding human sacrifice:

The only time a Satanist would perform a human sacrifice would be if it were to serve a twofold purpose; that being to release the magician’s wrath in the throwing of a curse, and more important, to dispose of a totally obnoxious and deserving individual.

Read More: http://blogs.chron.com/believeitornot/2010/10/court_rejects_satanists_discri_1.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Fbelieveitornot+%28Believe+It+or+Not%29 [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced in this article is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]