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29 Loy. L. A. L. Rev. 1319 (1995-1996)
Jury Unanimity in California: Should it Stay or Should it Go

handle is hein.journals/lla29 and id is 1347 raw text is: JURY UNANIMITY IN CALIFORNIA: SHOULD IT STAY OR SHOULD IT GO? I. INTRODUCTION ................................. 1321 ii. ORIGINS OF THE UNANIMITY REQUIREMENT ........ 1326 A. Jury Unanimity at the Federal Level ............ 1328 B. Jury Unanimity at the State Level .............. 1330 III. HISTORY OF THE UNANIMITY REQUIREMENT IN CALIFORNIA ................................... 1333 A. Common Law Origins of California's Unanimity Requirement .............................. 1333 B. Prior Attacks on the Unanimity Requirement ..... 1336 IV. PRESENTING THE ARGUMENTS: UNANIMITY VS. THE NONUNANIMOUS VERDICT........................ 1338 A. Arguments in Favor of Nonunanimous Verdicts .... 1339 1. History does not mandate continued acceptance of the unanimity rule ............ 1339 a. historical inertia is no justification for continued adherence to the unanimity rule ... 1340 b. the unanimity requirement is a historical accident ............................ 1341 c. continued acceptance of the unanimity requirement freezes the law in time ........ 1341 2. Adoption of the nonunanimous jury requirement would effectively reduce the number of hung juries in California .......... 1342 a. the hung jury as a product of the unanimity rule ....................... 1345 i. hung juries result when one or two jurors refuse to join the majority ...... 1347 ii. hung juries as a result of defense counsel tactics .................... 1349 b. reducing the hung jury rate in California will result in a reduction in economic and judicial costs ..................... 1351 1319

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