Louisiana voters will decide this fall whether the state keeps or nixes a Jim Crow-era law that lets juries return non-unanimous verdicts in felony trials.
The issue heads to the Nov. 6 ballot, after state Senators approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday. With public approval, Louisiana would join 48 states in mandating all jurors to agree on an accused felon’s guilt before a conviction.
Current state law requires only 10 of 12 jurors to agree on a defendant’s fate during felony trials. Oregon is the only other state with such a provision, though Louisiana is the only state that allows non-unanimous verdicts in murder cases.
“It’s time Louisiana got it, and it’s time we got on board,” Rep. Sherman Mack (R-Albany) said just before the House advanced the legislation Monday.
The Louisiana law dates back to 1898, as black residents were beginning to serve on juries. An official journal from that year’s constitutional convention outlines a mission “to establish the supremacy of the white race, to the extent to which it could be legally and constitutionally done.”
“This is literally like the shark or alligator that has remained unchanged since the days when people were being lynched in the streets and locked up for whistling at women of a different race,” said Sen. J.P. Morrell (D-New Orleans), whose bill has spearheaded efforts to repeal the law.
The constitutional amendment, once thought a long shot, has met rare unity between liberals and conservatives. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center has led the support among left-leaning organizations, while the Louisiana Family Forum and Americans for Prosperity have voiced endorsements on the right.
“Very seldom do we have something of this magnitude, this historic, that enjoys such wide bipartisan support,” Morrell said Tuesday.
Opposition had come from the Louisiana District Attorneys Association, with prosecutors saying that requiring unanimous verdicts would hurt their chances of getting convictions. The group has since adopted a more neutral stance on Morrell’s bill.
“I think God changed some minds out there today,” said Ed Tarpley, a former Grant Parish district attorney who supports overturning the century-old law. “This needs to be changed.”
If it passes and wins support from voters, the legislation would not be retroactive. It would apply to crimes committed on or after Jan. 1, 2019.