Supreme Court Bans Nonunanimous Jury Verdicts in Oregon – By Associated Press (VOA News) / April 20 2020
SALEM, ORE. – Until Monday, Oregon was the only state that allowed nonunanimous jury convictions.
The U.S. Supreme Court ended that in a decision involving a murder conviction in Louisiana which, until 2019, had also allowed nonunanimous jury convictions.
The Oregon District Attorneys Association said it is reviewing the opinion for its immediate impact on pending and closed criminal cases.
State Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum had warned the U.S. Supreme Court that the criminal justice system would be “overwhelmed” if it ruled that nonunanimous jury verdicts are unconstitutional. She wrote in a brief to the court last August that the ruling could invalidate hundreds or even thousands of convictions.
In 1934, voters decided to amend the state constitution to allow split-jury verdicts — a decision fueled by white supremacy and anti-minority sentiment. One newspaper said immigrants from southern and eastern Europe had made the requirement for unanimous verdicts “unwieldy and unsatisfactory.”
Rosenblum had supported a move to repeal the amendment, noting the jury rule’s links to racism and anti-Semitism. But she said such a change should be for cases “going forward,” not retroactively.
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