TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Apr 20, 2020

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that juries in state criminal trials must be unanimous to convict a defendant, settling a quirk of constitutional law that had allowed divided votes to result in convictions in Louisiana and Oregon. The Associated Press reports the court found the practice to be inconsistent with the Constitution’s right to a jury trial and that it should be discarded as a vestige of Jim Crow laws in Louisiana and racial, ethnic and religious bigotry that led to its adoption in Oregon in the 1930s. The 6-3 ruling also overturned the conviction of Evangelisto Ramos, who is serving a life sentence in Louisiana.