Criminal Convictions by Non-Unanimous Juries

Here's the basic issue: In Apodaca v

Here's the basic issue: In Apodaca v. Oregon (1972), the Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment requires unanimity for a verdict but that the Fourteenth Amendment does not carry this rule over to the states, and that even 93 verdicts are constitutionally permissible. The Jury Trial Clause is thus the one Bill of Rights clause that is neither completely incorporated against the states via the Fourteenth Amendment, nor completely not incorporated. (Recall that the Bill of Rights originally applied only to the federal government, and has been applied to the states only through the Fourteenth Amendment.)

This partial incorporation is inconsistent both with prior Supreme Court practice and with this year's McDonald v. City of Chicago decision. (McDonald calls such an approach "watered-down" incorporation.) In fact, in Apodaca, only one Justice Justice Powell concluded that the Jury Trial Clause required unanimity in federal trials but that this provision shouldn't be incorporated against the states. The other eight would have applied the Jury Trial Clause the same way both to federal and state trials, but four said (incorrectly, in my view) that it didn't require unanimity in either and four said it required unanimity in both. Justice Powell was the controlling vote, and that's how the partial incorporation result was reached.

I'd be particularly interested in talking to people whose organizations might be inclined to file amicus briefs on this. (Amicus briefs will be due "30 days after the case is placed on the docket" Oct. 9 plus a day or two, given the docketing delays.) My view is that amicus briefs are even more helpful at the petition stage than at the merits stage, since the big challenge with any such case is to persuade the Court that this is an issue that deserves the Justices' attention. So if you might be interested.

the right to a ... trial, by an impartial jury" incorporates certain historically accepted attributes of a jury, including the unanimity requirement. The answer the Court has given is yes (see Part II.C of the petition), and leading early commentators (Part II.A) as well as late 19th-century commentators (Part II.B) said the same.

The question is now whether this well-settled understanding of the Sixth Amendment should also be applied, via the Fourteenth Amendment, to the states.

Criminal Convictions by Non-Unanimous Juries

By: jamesrake

POST COMMENT

IMPORTANCE OF BACK LINKS A luxurious king size bed for your bedroom What You Need To Do If You Suspect You Have Bed Bugs Laser Tag which photocopier , canon copiers , Canon Photocopier cheap lease photocopiers , Canon Photocopier , canon photocopiers Reliving your day through your dreams Useful Items Regarding Secrets On How To Discover Cheap Air Tickets Gout Cure – Best Gout Cure Advice Fuel Injector Spray Pattern Effects Fuel Economy| Fuel Injection Jackie Evancho - America's Got Talent 2010 A Stroll Around The Port Harcourt City 3 Importantes Pasos Para Ganar Dinero Con Los Sistemas De Afiliados Metal Fabrication And Kanban