“Then, we’re agreed? The Good Book says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The towel head gets the needle?” Pastor Bruce O’Hara asked his fellow jurors.

            The pastor was the foreman of the jury. Eleven others and him had been asked by Judge Amelia Wilkinson to retire to the sequestered jury room after the prosecution and defence concluded their respective submissions. The penalty phase of the trial had begun.  They the jury found the defendant Abdul Hamid and his brother Mustafa guilty of the “honour killing” of Abdul’s daughter Fathima. Abdul had slashed his daughter’s throat while his brother inflicted multiple stab wounds on the eighteen-year-old who begged for her life while those she loved ignored her piteous cries and mercilessly stabbed her to death.

            Fathima’s crime was that she defied her father by dating Myron Levine, the son of a rabbi, both of them being in the freshman class of CalState.  The prosecution detailed the grisly murder. The father and uncle waylaid Fathima as she returned from campus and slaughtered her.

            “So, the needle?” O’Hara said. “Let’s have a show of hands.”

            All the jurors but one raised their hands. Eleven pairs of curious eyes were directed at Simone Laurent, majoring in philosophy at Cal State. Waiting in the jury pool she kept reading “Open Socrates” by Agnes Callard. The book lay on the table in front of her.

            Sitting next to her, Alan Schmidt, shook his head in disbelief. “I know that book is full of ten-dollar words but could you please tell us ordinary folks your reasons?” The other jurors looked at Simone who was dressed in jeans and a CalState sweatshirt.

            Juror Mary Love said, “If you’re one of those bleeding-heart liberals against death penalty, why didn’t you tell the truth when the DA asked you whether you opposed the death penalty.”

            Simone was for the death penalty but only for serial killers and child molesters. Telling this to the DA never did cross her mind.

            “An eye for an eye,” Pastor O’Hara said looking around as many jurors nodded.

            Simone looked around and saw that her fellow jurors were impatient. She said, “Gandhi said that an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.”

            “We go by the Holy Book not by the sayings of a woke congressman” the pastor said.

            “Besides,” interjected Schmidt, “the book you’re reading. Do you know the author left her husband for her research student?”

            “So?” Simone said.

            “A corrupting influence then,” the pastor said. “Don’t let the devil use you!”

            “Socrates wouldn’t have condoned what Hamid did but your Bible does,” Simone said looking directly at O’Hara.

            The pastor pounded the table. Spittle flew through his mouth as he thundered, “Don’t you blaspheme, young lady. Don’t you dare.” He clenched his fist, and his red face even got redder. His red beard reminded Simone of an irate prophet.

            Another juror, Mrs. Kowlawski knitted her eyebrows and said, “Let’s cool down everyone.” Then looking at Simone, she said, “Care to explain the Bible’s link to Hamid’s crime?”

            “Yes, tell us you Bible scholar,” jeered O’Hara. The other jurors looked at Simone, some hostile and the others frankly curious.

            “Look no further than God’s order to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac,” Simone said.

            “So? We must obey God. A heathen feminist like you won’t understand,” the pastor said.

            “We’re wasting time. Let’s vote for the needle,” another juror said.

            Mrs. Kowlawski said, “I’m curious young lady. Explain yourself.”

            “Will do, if our pastor can handle it,” Simone said.

            “Go ahead and channel Lucifer,” the pastor said.

            “God told Abraham to kill his son. Instead of obeying, Abraham should have told God that Isaac was not his property to destroy. If parents can kill their children, then honour killings are fine. In fact, I think that this episode is the justification for honour killings, not to speak of the slaughter of millions of innocent animals every year to commemorate this event.”

            “God tested Abraham’s faith and he passed, and you, and you, have miserably failed,” the pastor said thumping the desk.

            “Plato famously asked whether something is bad because God says it’s bad or God says it’s bad because it is indeed bad. God got his values all twisted up and called something good when it was bad, very bad,” Simone said.

            “So this towel head’s like Abraham?” the pastor said.

            “Honor thy father and thy mother is Fifth Commandment. Why? Because your parents support and nurture you! Why honour them if they can kill you? Besides, did Abraham get the permission of Isaac’s mother to kill him? What mother would allow her child to be killed?”

            “This woke nonsense has no place in our discussion. Dare to repeat that in my church and my flock will tear your limbs out,” O’Hara said.

            Juror Love said, “I think this young lady has a point. I suggest we vote for life without parole. Hamid is a monster, but a monster shaped by scripture and his twisted culture.”

            Many jurors nodded in agreement. Schmidt said, “We can tell the judge that he should be in solitary confinement.”

            O’Hara shook his head in disbelief. A vein throbbed on his forehead.

            “You should never have been on this jury. May Fathima’s innocent blood be upon you,” he told Simone.

            “I won’t tell you where you can put your guilt trip. You may have drunk the Kool Aid by buying this story, but I won’t drink the Hemlock and I I won’t drink the Kool Aid either.”

            Fifteen minutes later, O’Hara told the judge that the unanimous decision to execute Hamid was not there. They had decided that Hamid be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

            As the judge asked Hamid to stand in order to be sentenced, Mrs. Hamid began wailing. Mrs. Kowlawski  made eye contact with Simone and gave her the thumbs up sign. Pastor O’Hara’s face was buried in his hands.

            The Bible that he always carried was not to be seen.