In 48 states and in federal court, a single jurors vote to acquit is enough to prevent a conviction; Louisiana and Oregon punish people based on 10-to-2 verdicts. By striking down a precedent upon which there has been massive and entirely reasonable reliance, the majority sets an important precedent about stare decisis. And the convention approved non-unanimous juries as one pillar of a comprehensive and brutal program of racist Jim Crow measures against African-Americans, especially in voting and jury service. The majority indicts Justice Whites opinion on five grounds: (1) it spent almost no time grappling with the historical meaning of the Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States 777, p. 248 (1833). SBD Legal Works: Personal Injury & Accident Blog. Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit. Sixth Amendments guarantee of a jury trial applies with less force to the States under the See Ore. Rule App. (a)The Constitutions text and structure clearly indicate that the . Non-unanimous verdicts were once advocated by the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association. jury in the Moreover, [t]he force of stare decisis is at its nadir in cases concerning [criminal] procedur[e] rules that implicate fundamental constitutional protections. Alleyne, 570 U.S., at 116, n.5. Sixth Amendment right applies against the States. Sixth Amendment included a right to unanimity but a different majority concluded that the right did not apply to the States. To state the point in simple terms: Why stick by an erroneous precedent that is egregiously wrong as a matter of constitutional law, that allows convictions of some who would not be convicted under the proper constitutional rule, and that tolerates and reinforces a practice that is thoroughly racist in its origins and has continuing racially discriminatory effects? . And a volume on the jury trial was in agreement. While the dissent points to the legitimate reasons for Louisianas reenactment, post, at 34, Louisianas perhaps only effort to contend with the laws discriminatory purpose and effects came recently, when the law was repealed altogether. Cf. Pena- Rodriguez v. Colorado, 580 U.S. ___, ______ (2017) (slip op., at 1314) (collecting cases). . By contrast, the dissent doesnt try to defend Louisianas law on Sixth or Draft 1968); ALI, Code of Criminal Procedure 355, p. 99 (1930). Our three colleagues next try is to argue that Apodaca is not binding because a case has no ratio decidendi when a majority does not agree on the reason for the result. Given how unmoored it was from the start, it might seem unlikely that later developments could have done more to undermine the decision. 1620. Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Sixth Amendment jury trial right against the States. [1], Nor was it only the prospect of African-Americans voting that concerned the delegates. 71106(a) (2019). I have already rejected our due process incorporation cases as demonstrably erroneous, and I fundamentally disagree with applying that theory of incorporation simply because it reaches the same result in the case before us. But having feinted in this direction, the Court quickly changes course and says that the application of todays decision to prisoners whose appeals have ended should not concern us. Sixth Amendments drafting historyin particular, that the original House versions explicit unanimity references were removed in the Senate versionreveals the framers intent to leave this particular feature of the common law behind. Evangelisto Ramos was charged with second-degree murder and exercised his right to a jury trial. 476 U.S. 79 (1986)); DeStefano v. Woods, And Apodaca sits uneasily with 120 years of preceding case law. Sixth Amendment was understood since the founding to require that a felony guilty verdict be unanimous. In the first place and as weve seen, not even Louisiana tries to suggest that Apodaca supplies a governing precedent. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. Treating that case as precedential would require embracing the dubious proposition that a single Justice writing only for himself has the authority to bind this Court to already rejected propositions. The majoritys only other reason for overruling Apodaca is that it is inconsistent with related decisions and recent legal developments. 542 U.S. 296, 301 (2004); Apprendi v. New Jersey, 372 U.S. 335, 344345 (1963) ( Get free summaries of new US Supreme Court opinions delivered to your inbox! But who can say whether any particular hung jury is a waste, rather than an example of a jury doing exactly what the plurality said it shoulddeliberating carefully and safeguarding against overzealous prosecutions? Five Justices in Apodaca itself disagreed with that pluralitys contrary view of the 2, 1, p. 226 (1824). A. J., at 334. State courts, for example, continued to interpret the phrase trial by jury to require unanimity in felony guilty verdicts. L.Rev. Sixth Amendment does require unanimity? Both by design and as a matter of fact, enacting new legislation is difficultand far more difficult than the Courts cases sometimes seem to assume. See Strauder v. West Virginia, But stare decisis has never been treated as an inexorable command.[58] And the doctrine is at its weakest when we interpret the Constitution[59] because a mistaken judicial interpretation of that supreme law is often practically impossible to correct through other means. Fourteenth Amendment. B. That question, we are told, will be decided in a later case. Evangelisto Ramos was convicted of a serious crime in a Louisiana court by a 10-to-2 jury verdict. And Louisianas modern policy decision to retain non- unanimous juriesas distinct from its original decision in the late 1800s to adopt non-unanimous juriesmay have been motivated by neutral principles (or just by inertia). on April 10, 2019. For example, in 1824, Nathan Dane reported as fact that the U.S. Constitution required unanimity in criminal jury trials for serious offenses. It does. See Brief for Respondent 17. The legal doctrine of stare decisis derives from the Latin maxim stare decisis et non quieta movere, which means to stand by the thing decided and not disturb the calm. See H. Kalven & H. Zeisel, The American Jury 461 (1966); Diamond, Rose, & Murphy, Revisiting the Unanimity Requirement: The Behavior of the Nonunanimous Civil Jury, 100 Nw. The Court conspicuously avoids saying which clause it analyzes. Justice Powells belief that the Constitution allows the States a degree of flexibility in the interpretation of certain constitutional rights, although not our dominant approach in recent years, McDonald, 561 U.S., at 759766, has old and respectable roots. Sixth Amendment decision has undercut the plurality. Third, would overruling the prior decision unduly upset reliance interests? The next question is whether the Marks rule applies any differently when the precedent that would be established by a fractured decision would overrule a prior precedent. In reaching this conclusion, I do not disregard the interests of petitioner and others who were convicted by a less-than-unanimous vote. That point is important with respect to Part IVA, which only three Justices have joined. 536 U.S. 584 (2002)); ODell v. Netherland, Fourteenth Amendment, not the Due Process Clause. Accused of a serious crime, Evangelisto Ramos insisted on his innocence and invoked his right to a jury trial. [44] Whats more, the plurality never explained why the promised benefit of abandoning unanimityreducing the rate of hung juriesalways scores as a credit, not a cost. Sixth Amendments unanimity requirement no fewer than 13 times over more than 120 years, see, e.g., Thompson v. Utah, The difficult question, then, is when to overrule an erroneous precedent. Code 353411(a) (2019); Iowa Ct. Rule 2.5 (2020); Kan. Stat. 505 U.S. 717, 729 (1992) (policies that are traceable to a States de jure racial segregation and that still have discriminatory effects offend the Equal Protection Clause). To be clear, one could advocate for and justify a non-unanimous jury rule by resort to neutral and legitimate principles. 576 U.S. 644 (2015); Johnson v. United States, It is impossible to believe that all these cases would have resulted in mistrials if unanimity had been demanded. Ante, at 67; see, e.g., Patton v. United States, Stat., ch. But two States, Louisiana and Oregon, have long punished people based on 10-to-2 verdicts. It was good news for Evangelisto Ramos, the named plaintiff in the case, who was convicted and sentenced to life without parole in Louisiana even though two of his trial jurors voted to acquit. namely by a jury . See Southern Union Co. v. United States, Mandel v. Bradley, In the years following Apodaca, both Louisiana and Oregon chose to continue allowing nonunanimous verdicts. Sixth Amendment); Furman v. Georgia, Ramos v Louisiana (US, 2020) EVANGELISTO RAMOS, PETITIONER v. LOUISIANA. Pp. [60] To balance these considerations, when it revisits a precedent this Court has traditionally considered the quality of the decisions reasoning; its consistency with related decisions; legal developments since the decision; and reliance on the decision.[61] In this case, each factor points in the same direction. That this result constituted a precedent follows a fortiori from our cases holding that even our summary affirmances of lower court decisions are precedents for the precise issues presented and necessarily decided by the judgment below. Const., Art. No prior case has made such a suggestion. of Ed. But before reaching those issues, I must say something about the rhetoric with which the majority has seen fit to begin its opinion. Pp. 539 U.S. 558 (2003); Ring v. Arizona, There are circumstances when past decisions must be overturned, but we begin with the presumption that we will follow precedent, and therefore when the Court decides to overrule, it has an obligation to provide an explanation for its decision. XI (1786); Va. Under Marks, the clear answer to this question is yes. Sixth Amendments guarantee is not demonstrably erroneous. DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/26/2019. The truth is that we have little contemporaneous evidence shedding light on why the Senate acted as it did. Racism, white supremacy, the Ku Klux Klan. That realityand the resulting perception of unfairness and racial biascan undermine confidence in and respect for the criminal justice system. Still, the promise of a jury trial surely meant somethingotherwise, there would have been no reason to write it down. 469 U.S. 528 (1985); Illinois v. Gates, [46] It seems the Apodaca plurality never even conceived of such possibilities. Const., Art. In his canonical opinion in Burnet, Justice Brandeis described the Courts practice with respect to stare decisis in constitutional cases in a way that was accurate then and remains accurate now: In cases involving the Federal Constitution, where correction through legislative action is practically impossible, this Court has often overruled its earlier decisions. 285 U.S., at 406407 (dissenting opinion). XII (1780). I, 8; Ill. Comp. At the time of the Fourteenth Amendment that he knew was (and remains) foreclosed by precedent. So its not just unanimity that died in the Senate, but all the other accustomed requisites associated with the common law jury trial righti.e., everything history might have taught us about what it means to have a jury trial. 561 U.S. 742, 813 (2010) (Thomas, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment). Fourteenth Amendment. Ante, at 21; ante, at 2 (Sotomayor, J., concurring in part). And it certainly disserves important objectives that stare decisis exists to promote, including evenhandedness, predictability, and the protection of legitimate reliance. Sixth Amendment, that summary disposition would be a precedent. 7th ed. While the majority worries that Apodaca is inconsistent with our cases on incorporation, the majority ignores something far more important: the way in which Apodaca is intertwined with the body of our In other cases overruling prior decisions, the dissents claimed that reliance interests were at stake, but whatever one may think about the weight of those interests, no one can argue that they are comparable to those in this case. And how about the prominent scholars who have taken the same position? 494 U.S. 433, 468 (1990) (Scalia, J., dissenting) (the Court has approved verdicts by less than a unanimous jury, citing Apodaca). 576 U.S. 644 (2015); Roe v. Wade, of the commonsense judgment of a group of laymen between the defendant and the possibility of an overzealous prosecutor.[41] And measured against that muddy yardstick, they quickly concluded that requiring 12 rather than 10 votes to convict offers no meaningful improvement. Declaration of Rights 8 (1776). Yet, as weve seen, both bear their problems. To begin with, the Courts precedents on precedent distinguish statutory cases from constitutional cases. Sixth Amendment did not incorporate every feature of the common-law right (a conclusion that the majority, by the way, does not dispute). 447 U.S. 323, 330331 (1980) (plurality opinion) ([T]he constitutional guarantee of trial by jury does not prescribe the exact proportion of the jury that must concur in the verdict); Burch v. Louisiana, But . In 2016, a Louisiana jury convicted Evangelisto Ramos of second-degree murder for the 2014 killing of Trinece Fedison. And our judicial dutynot to mention the candor we owe to our fellow citizensrequires us to put an end to this Courts due process prestidigitation, which no one is willing to defend on the merits. Sixth Amendment had not been held to apply to the States. In most state trials, and in all federal trials, thats twice as many as you need. Of course not. And, on the States account, we should conclude that unanimity isnt worthy enough to make the trip. See Franchise Tax Bd. Except for the effects on that limited class of direct- review cases, it will be relatively easy going forward for Louisiana and Oregon to transition to the unanimous jury rule that the other 48 States and the federal courts use. Really, no one has found a way to make sense of it. I begin with the parties dispute as to whether the You already receive all suggested Justia Opinion Summary Newsletters. Prob. In the founding era, six States explicitly mentioned unanimity in their constitutions. Accordingly, it is impossible to see how a full-blown decision of this Court reaching the same result can be regarded as a non-precedent.[12]. Ann. Evangelisto Ramos was convicted of a serious crime in a Louisiana court by a 10-to-2 jury verdict. Sotomayor, J., filed an opinion concurring as to all but Part IVA. Remember, Justice Powell agreed that the In effect, the non-unanimous jury allows backdoor and unreviewable peremptory strikes against up to 2 of the 12 jurors. I agree with the Court that the time has come to overrule Apodaca. The best the State can offer is to suggest that all these statements came in dicta. Thus, if the jury trial right requires a unanimous verdict in federal court, it requires no less in state court. Sixth Amendments adoption, the right to trial by jury included a right to a unanimous verdict. See Teague v. Lane, Sixth Amendment. 21102 (2013); Conn. Gen. Stat. All this overlooks the fact that, at the time of the 3738. 35 35. 23, 17 (replacing Criminal Justice Act 1967, ch. What about Justice Powells concurrence? In the end, the best anyone can seem to muster against Mr. Ramos is that, if we dared to admit in his case what we all know to be true about the Four dissenting Justices would not have hesitated to strike down the States laws, recognizing that the 431 U.S., at 235236. See generally Devine, Clayton, Dunford, Seying, & Price, Jury Decision Making: 45 Years of Empirical Research on Deliberating Groups, 7 Psychology Pub. [35] Weve been studiously ambiguous, even inconsistent, about what Apodaca might mean. 556 U.S. 332 (2009). What the State appears to have meant is that Justice Powells rea-soning was not binding. When, in the years after Apodaca, new questions arose about the scope of the jury-trial right in state courtas they did in cases like Apprendi v. New Jersey, [70] Our decision here promises to cause less, and certainly nothing before us supports the dissents surmise that it will cause wildly more, disruption than these other decisions. Understandably thinking that Apodaca was good law, the state courts in Louisiana and Oregon have tried thousands of cases under rules that permit such verdicts. See ante, at 67. Const., Art. 323 U.S. 214 (1944); Plessy v. Ferguson, 7(a) (2018); Wash. Rev. But today, the Court does away with Apodaca and, in so doing, imposes a potentially crushing burden on the courts and criminal justice systems of those States. Ramos, 140 S. Ct. at 1397. Louisiana first endorsed nonunanimous verdicts for serious crimes at a constitutional convention in 1898. (d)Factors traditionally considered by the Court when determining whether to preserve precedent on stare decisis grounds do not favor upholding Apodaca. Proc. Indeed, in 2018, Louisiana amended its constitution to require jury unanimity in criminal trials for crimes committed on or after January 1, 2019, meaning that the transition is already well under way in Louisiana. Meanwhile, Justice Powell refused to follow this Courts incorporation precedents. See 476 U.S., at 8589, 91. Louisiana achieved statehood in 1812. Louisiana has now abolished non-unanimous verdicts, and Oregon seemed on the verge of doing the same until the Court intervened.[1]. Proc. The United States Supreme Court used the Evangelisto Ramos case as a vehicle to overturn state laws that require less than a unanimous jury vote for conviction. And in Oregon, the State most severely impacted by todays decision, watershed status may not matter since the State Supreme Court has reserved decision on whether state law gives prisoners a greater opportunity to invoke new precedents in state collateral proceedings.
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