Ohio Supreme Court upholds sentence imposed by Bible-quoting judge

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously upheld a 51-year prison sentence imposed by a judge who<br>quoted a Bible verse while deciding a man's punishment for raping a

Wednesday, March 15th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously upheld a 51-year prison sentence imposed by a judge who
quoted a Bible verse while deciding a man's punishment for raping a young girl.

An appeals court last year overturned the sentence, saying the judge acted outside Ohio's sentencing guidelines. The state Supreme Court disagreed.

The high court ruled 7-0 that Hamilton County Judge Melba Marsh did not violate the due process rights of James Arnett, who pleaded
guilty in 1997 to repeatedly raping an 8-year-old girl.

In sentencing Arnett in 1988, the judge quoted a Bible verse that says anyone who offends a child would be better off if "a millstone were hanged around his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

The Bible was one factor in many that supported Marsh's "egally unremarkable decision" to assign significant weight to
one statutory factor -- the victim's age, Justice Deborah Cook wrote.

A message left for Arnett's lawyer, Charles Bartlett, at his Cincinnati office was not immediately returned.