The Colorado Supreme Court yesterday threw out the death penalty in a rape-and-murder case because jurors had studied Bible verses such as "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" during deliberations.

On a 3-2 vote, justices ordered Robert Harlan to serve life in prison without parole for kidnapping 25-year-old cocktail waitress Rhonda Maloney in 1994, raping her at gunpoint and then fatally shooting her.

During oral arguments before the Supreme Court last month, defense attorney Kathleen Lord said the jurors had gone outside the law. "They went to the Bible to find out God's position on capital punishment," she said.

Washington

Former U.S. diplomats urge Bolton's rejection

Fifty-nine former U.S. diplomats are urging the Senate to reject John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

"He is the wrong man for this position," they said in a letter to Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Hearings are scheduled for April 7.

The former diplomats, who served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, criticized Bolton for his "exceptional record" of opposing U.S. efforts to improve national security through arms control and for his "insistence that the U.N. is valuable only when it directly serves the United States."

Santa Ana, Calif.

87-year-old sentenced in sex-tourism case

An 87-year-old man convicted of attempting to travel to the Philippines to molest young girls was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison under a 2003 federal law aimed at fighting so-called sex tourism.

John W. Seljan was the first person to be convicted at trial of violating the Protect Act, which made it easier for U.S. authorities to prosecute people for overseas sex crimes, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Seljan in October 2003 at Los Angeles International Airport as he was about to board a flight to the Philippines. In his luggage, he had child pornography, sexual aids and nearly 100 pounds of chocolates and other candy. Authorities said he intended to have sex with two girls, ages 9 and 12.

Gallup, N.M.

Man bound, dragged; his condition critical

A man who was bound by the ankles, tied to a vehicle and dragged more than a mile was in critical condition yesterday, police said.

Officers received a report early Sunday of an injured man in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. They found Fausto Arellano, 32, and a rope. Drag marks led back to Arellano's home, said a Gallup police detective.

Arellano, a single father of two, was airlifted to University of New Mexico Hospital. No arrests have been made and a motive has not been established.

Norwich, N.Y.

Obscenity tattooed on teen's forehead

A man and a teenager have been charged with forcibly tattooing an obscenity on the forehead of a 17-year-old boy, police said yesterday.

Officer Craig Berry declined to describe the tattoo, except to say it was a phrase. He said the attackers used a homemade tattooing instrument.

Kenneth D. Peer, 23, and a 17-year-old boy were charged with assault and unlawful imprisonment. Police were withholding the name of the 17-year-old, who was charged as a juvenile.