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90 Tul. L. Rev. 693 (2015-2016)

handle is hein.journals/tulr90 and id is 733 raw text is: Circumventing Apodaca: An Equal Protection Challenge to Nonunanimous Jury Verdicts in Louisiana Kyle R. Satterfield* In Louisiana, a jury is not required to reach a unanimous verdict in order to convict a defendant of a felony-only ten of twelvejurors need to concur to reach a verdict Even if two jurois harbor reasonable doubt regarding the defendants guilw4 the defendant is nonetheless convicted and sentenced to a term of impisonment at hard labor Louisiana is only one of two states that permit nonunanimous jury verdicts in criminal proceedings, with Oregon being the other The United States Supreme Court upheld the use ofnonunanimousjury verdicts in state cnminalpmceedings in the companion cases ofJohnson v. Louisiana and Apodaca v. Oregon, even though the Courthadpreviously held thatjury unaninity was fundamental to the ight to a jury trial enshrined by the Sixth Amendment Four Justices held that the Sixth Amendment requirs alljury vernlcts, whether in federal or state courts, to be unanimous, while four Justices held that the Sixth Amendment does not require unanimity whatsoever Justice Powell, writing alone, held that the Sixth Amendment requires juy verhcts to be unanimous in federal criminal proceedings, but not in state criminaproceedings. Justice Powellk opinion is controlling, even though the other eight Justices agreed that the same standard no matter what that standard is, should apply coextensively to criminal proceedings in federal and state courts. Although recently referring to Apodaca's holding as the result of an unusual civision among the Juscesthe Court has not granted certiorari to recent challenges. The provision permitting nonunanimous jury verdicts in Louisiana Airst appeared in the constitution enacted in 1898, which was the result of the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1898 (1898 Convention). The 1898 Convention was called for expressly racist purposes, and this Comment argues that the provision implementing nonunanimous jury ver'cts was likewise motivated by racially discriminatory intent. Relying on contemporaneous statements of the delegates at the 1898 Convention, historic commentary in a New Orleans newspaper, empin'cal research, and the opinion of a historian, this Comment argues that Louisiana ' policy of * © 2016 Kyle R. Satterfield. J.D. candidate 2016, Tulane University Law School; B.A. Tulane University. The author is the Editor in Chief of the Tulane Law Review. The author would like to thank his mother and father, Anita and Roland Satterfield, and his grandmother and grandfather, Sue and Fred Frankowski, not only for their unconditional support, but also for teaching him the value of hard work and dedication. The author thanks Kevin Charpentier for playing the role of a loving parent throughout his undergraduate and graduate studies and the time between. The author also thanks his fiance, Austin Spooner, for his love and for having an unmatched ability to make him laugh and his sister, Brooke Satterfield, for her decision to attend Tulane University, which gave him the opportunity to make innumerable lasting memories with her. The author thanks Professor Jancy Hoeffel, whose field trip to the Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola) in connection with her Death Penalty Law class inspired this Comment, for her help in developing the topic. The author also thanks the Honorable Helen G. Berrigan, who serves as a continuing model of all that a law student, lawyer, and jurist should aspire to be. Lastly, the author thanks both the City of New Orleans and its people for welcoming him with open arms for the last eight years of his life and for allowing him to pursue and realize his creativity, passions, and dreams. 693

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