Gorsuch Dissent Chides Colleagues and ‘Wrong’ Supreme Court Precedent for ‘Tinkering’ with ‘Ancient Tradition’ in Criminal Justice Reform Case About Jury Trials – By Colin Kalmbacher (Law and Crime) / Nov 7, 2022
Justice Neil Gorsuch penned a blistering dissent against a denial of a petition for writ of certiorari after the nation’s high court decided against hearing a case about criminal justice reform.
The facts of the case stylized as Khorrami v. Arizona are fairly straightforward: “Arizona convicted Ramin Khorrami of serious crimes before an 8-member jury.” the dissent explains. The defendant believes that juries of less than 12 people are unconstitutional under the 6th and Fourteenth Amendments. And he wants a new trial.
Gorsuch, in light of history, is inclined to grant him one; Justice Brett Kavanaugh would have also granted the petition but did not otherwise give any indication how he might have voted in the case.
“For almost all of this Nation’s history and centuries before that, the right to trial by jury for serious criminal offenses meant the right to a trial before 12 members of the community,” the dissent notes.
