The Oregon Supreme Court has given retroactive effect to the Ramos Sixth Amendment jury unanimity rule, two months after the Louisiana Supreme Court refused to do so.
Oregon and Louisiana were the only two U.S. states that had permitted non-unanimous juries in criminal cases, which the U.S. Supreme Court held in Ramos were unconstitutional. But the U.S. Supreme Court later held that the new rule did not have retroactive effect as a matter of federal law, leaving open the question of whether state constitutional law compelled a retroactive result.
Oregon's departing Governor has also commuted the sentences of all of the state's death row inmates.
1 comment:
About 300 cases with no appeals pending (in addition to 470 that were impacted while a direct appeal was pending) are affected. Of those 300, according to one source: "most of the split-jury cases involve white men who were convicted of sex or assault crimes." https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2022/12/hundreds-of-criminal-verdicts-now-invalid-after-oregon-supreme-court-rules-unanimous-jury-requirement-applies-to-old-cases.html
Post a Comment