Discussing Ramos v Louisiana - Racial Discrimination, Doctrine Of Stare-Decisis And Some Concerns

In the midst of COVID-19-related news, the most interesting legal development in the United States went rather unnoticed, at least in India. On 20th April, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) passed a judgment declaring that the juries (consisting of 12 members) must be unanimous to convict a person accused of a serious offence. A single juror's vote to acquit is enough to prevent a conviction in the United States except in the courts of the states of Louisiana and Oregon. In these two States, i.e., Louisiana and Oregon, the punishment could be based on non-unanimous verdicts. In Ramos v. Louisiana, the accused Evangelisto Ramos was convicted of a serious crime by a 10-2 jury. Mr. Ramos challenged his conviction before the US Supreme Court and it was declared that the non-unanimous jury verdicts are unconstitutional as it violated the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Sixth Amendment and Juror-Unanimity James Madison The Bill of Rights (1791), drafted by James Madison, provided for ten amendments to the basic text of the US Constitution (1789), conferring various rights on its people. One of the ten amendments, viz. the Sixth Amendment, laid down five valuable rights available to an accused in criminal prosecutions. It stated that, in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall firstly, enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, secondly, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; thirdly, to be confronted with the witnesses against him; fourthly, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and fifthly, to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. However, the most important aspect of the right to a trial by jury is that it incorporated in itself the legal fiction- the jury shall be unanimous in their conclusion. Justice Neil Gorsuch who wrote for the majority in Ramos v. Louisiana explained how the unanimous jury principle is impregnated in the Sixth Amendment - "Wherever we might look to determine what the term "trial by an impartial jury trial" meant at the time of the Sixth Amendment's adoption—whether it's the common law, state practices in the founding era, or opinions and treatises written soon afterward—the answer is unmistakable. A jury must reach a unanimous verdict in order to convict. Juror unanimity emerged as a vital common law right in 14th- century England, appeared in the early American state constitutions, and provided the backdrop against which the Sixth Amendment was drafted and ratified. Postadoption treatises and 19th-century American legal treatises confirm this understanding." The necessity of juror-unanimity was the foundation of the right to trial by jury and the same was adopted, right after the civil war (1861-1865), for the States as per the Fourteenth Amendment (1868). The racial history of the non-unanimous jury rule of Louisiana CONVICT LEASING [Image Courtesy] Louisiana and Oregon were the only two states where juries could convict an accused with non-unanimous verdicts. It is interesting to see the history of this law chequered with racial discrimination. After the Civil War (1861-1860) when the slaves were freed, the United States witnessed 'Reconstruction-Era' which saw the Federal government taking control of the southern states, and the enactment of laws conferring rights on the newly freed African-American slaves. However, the efforts of the Federal Government did not go down well with the Whites of these states who tried to reimpose their control over the system. As the industries and factories fell short of labour, a new system called the "Convict Lease system" that allowed the State government to 'lease' out its prisoners to people or companies who needed labour. This system required that there were enough prisoners in the state prisons. The state administration manned by Whites lowered the jury requirement to get more convictions. In Louisinana, this was ensured, as explained by Justice Neil Gorsuch in his majority judgment, by introducing a "facially race-neutral" rule permitting 10-to-2 verdicts in order "to ensure that African-American juror service would be meaningless." Justice Gorsuch further explained that the law enabling non-unanimous jury was adopted in Oregon in the 1930s that could "similarly be traced to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and efforts to dilute the 'influence of racial, ethnic and religious minorities on Oregon juries". Justice Gorsuch also goes on to note that the states of Louisiana and Oregon did not deny that racial discrimination was a motivating factor for the non-unanimous jury laws. Justice Powell and...

Discussing Ramos v Louisiana - Racial Discrimination, Doctrine Of Stare-Decisis And Some Concerns

Mukund P Unny

Tags