BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — On Wednesday, a Louisiana bill designed to provide incarcerated individuals, who were convicted by now-outlawed split juries, the chance to request a new trial was shut down by Republican state senators, effectively ending the proposal.
Approximately 1,000 inmates in Louisiana were convicted under this non-unanimous jury system, which has origins in the racist “Jim Crow” era laws and was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020. Advocates argue that it is long overdue for Louisiana to correct this injustice and offer these individuals the opportunity for a fair trial.
Bill supporters highlighted numerous cases of individuals who, after being wrongly convicted by split juries, were eventually exonerated after spending many years in prison. They argued that the bill could have paved the way for others who might be innocent and convicted under non-unanimous juries to have another opportunity at a just trial.
The bill would have added non-unanimous verdicts to a list of claims for which an inmate can seek a retrial. Proponents reiterated that the legislation would only have created the opportunity to do so and that it would not have automatically granted a retrial or release.
During debate in the state Senate on Wednesday, Republican lawmakers raised concerns about overburdening courts and district attorneys with additional trials. Proponents said whether a new trial is granted is ultimately at the discretion of district attorneys.
Opponents also raised concerns about the cases being decades-old with some witnesses possibly dead or evidence lost. Supporters countered that old cases are tried all the time and that transcripts of testimony from the original trials could be used.
“This is about what’s right, not about what’s easy or convenient,” Sen. Royce Duplessis, the New Orleans Democrat who authored the bill, said to his colleagues.
Louisiana adopted the practice of split jury convictions in 1898 during a constitutional convention that was fueled by efforts to maintain white supremacy after the Civil War. Diluting the voice of Black jurors allowed the often-white majority to determine the outcome.
Louisiana voters did not get rid of the practice until 2018, two years before the Supreme Court ruled that it was a violation of the 6th Amendment’s guarantee of the right to an impartial jury.
At the time, Louisiana and Oregon were the only states that allowed split decisions — 10-2 or 11-1 jury votes — to result in convictions. The Oregon Supreme Court granted new trials to hundreds of people. But Louisiana’s Supreme Court rejected arguments to apply the ruling retroactively.
“If we choose to vote down this bill we’re saying that justice has an expiration date,” Duplessis said. “We have an opportunity in Louisiana to remove this stain, because right now we are the only ones wearing it.”
The bill failed on a vote of 9-26, along party lines. Given the overwhelming lack of support for the bill in the Senate and that there is only a month left in this year’s Legislative Session, the measure currently has no viable path forward and is likely dead.
