That’s unconstitutional, says a Ninth Circuit panel in yesterday’s Williams v. Cavazos decision (which seems correct to me). An excerpt: As a general matter, the Sixth Amendment does not prohibit the mid-deliberation dismissal of jurors who are unable to serve or who engage in misconduct. In Miller, for example, we found no constitutional violation in […]
Archive | Non-Unanimous Criminal Verdicts
Don’t Photograph That Farm!
By Eugene Volokh on March 8, 2011 5:54 pm in Freedom to Gather Information, Non-Unanimous Criminal Verdicts
A bill just introduced in Florida: (1) A person who enters onto a farm or other property where legitimate agriculture operations are being conducted without the written consent of the owner, or an authorized representative of the owner, commits a felony of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084, […]
Supreme Court Declines to Reconsider Constitutionality of Convictions by Non-Unanimous Juries
I regret to say that the Court has denied my petition for certiorari challenging Oregon’s practice of allowing convictions by 10-2 and 11-1 votes. For more on the issue, see here, or just look at the cert petition. I’m disappointed, but of course not surprised — for virtually any cert petition, the chances of getting […]
My Non-Unanimous Criminal Jury Case
I’ve just filed a reply brief in Herrera v. Oregon, the case in which I argue that the Jury Trial Clause, as incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, should be read to require jury unanimity for a conviction in state court; and the Louisana Criminal Defense Lawyers Association has filed an amicus brief […]
Brief in Opposition (Plus An Amicus Brief on Our Side) in My Non-Unanimous Criminal Jury Case
An update for those people who have been interested in my certiorari petition in Herrera v. Oregon (the one that argues that the Jury Trial Clause, as incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, should be read to require jury unanimity for a conviction in state court): A. The Oregon Attorney General’s office has […]
Call for a Response (CFR) in My Non-Unanimous Criminal Verdict Case
I’m glad to say that yesterday the Supreme Court asked the State of Oregon to file a response in Herrera v. Oregon, the case in which I filed a certiorari petition challenging Oregon’s practice of allowing criminal convictions by nonunanimous juries. (Louisiana is the only other state that allows such convictions in cases to which […]
Criminal Convictions by Non-Unanimous Juries
I blogged last month about my certiorari petition in Herrera v. Oregon. My argument is that the Jury Trial Clause — as historically understood, and as accepted by the Court in federal cases — requires jury unanimity for a conviction, and that following McDonald v. City of Chicago the same rule should be applied to […]
Petition of the Day
I was pleased to see that SCOTUSblog listed my certiorari petition in Herrera v. Oregon as one of the three petitions of the day for today.
Unanimity as a Requirement of the Trial by Jury, from 1765 to the Late 1800s
In the discussion of my Herrera v. Oregon certiorari petition, some wondered about the source of the conclusion that the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury includes the requirement that the jury be unanimous for a conviction. Recall that this is settled under the Sixth Amendment as such, with regard to federal prosecutions; the […]
Criminal Convictions by Non-Unanimous Juries
I just filed (with a great deal of help from my Mayer Brown LLP colleagues) a petition for certiorari (Herrera v. Oregon) asking the Court to decide whether nonunanimous criminal convictions are unconstitutional. My sense is that it isn’t too legalese, and the issue — and the historical discussion — might be of some interest […]