This 60 Minutes piece by Wesley Lowery sounds fascinating:
My latest for @60Minutes is a piece i’ve wanted to do for awhile – an examination of Louisiana’s “Jim Crow Juries” and the years long fight led by current and formerly incarcerated people to rid the state of an explicitly racist provision of the law (a brief thread)
In nearly the entire country, someone accused of a crime can only be convicted by a unanimous jury decision. otherwise it’s a mistrial. But in Louisiana, you can be convicted by a split jury – even if some jurors vote in the final tally to convict, you end up incarcerated.
This provision was passed into law during Louisiana’s 1898 constitutional convention — which had been called, post-Emancipation, for the explicit purpose of “ensuring the supremacy of the white race in perpetuity.”
Allowing for split jury convictions would made it easier, even w/black ppl now on juries, to convict black men & women even without compelling evidence/when there was doubt of guilt. that was important for both subjugation and for the convict labor it would provide post slavery
A century later, I spoke with 52-year-old Anthony Boult via video chat from Angola, where he has been incarcerated more than two decades for second degree murder. he was convicted on a 10-2 vote. virtually anywhere else in the country, that’s a mistrial.
Formerly incarcerated people campaigned to get rid of the state law. as Norris Henderson notes, most people had no clue this provision of the law even existed in Louisiana
Then, last year, in the Ramos decision, the Supreme Court ruled the practice of split juries unconstitutional. but the decision did not apply retroactively – meaning the 1600+ people already incarcerated due to these unconstitutional split jury convictions had no recourse.
In New Orleans, DA Jason Williams is proactively reviewing all convictions in his jurisdiction that came via split juries, and finding cases like Jermaine Hudson – who spent 22 years incarcerated for a crime he not only didn’t do but one that was completely fabricated.
Legislation granting new trials/reviews to those still incarcerated due to split jury convictions failed in Louisiana this year. there is hope something similar could pass next year. In the meantime, 1600+ ppl are in prison for convictions the supreme court ruled unconstitutional.
Our full segment is streaming now on @paramountplus. would love if you watched and weighed in. iIwasn’t even close to the first person to tell this story, which has been documented and examined by tons of great journalists. Just hoped to use my platform to bring more attention.
Also worth noting: Louisiana is one of two states with non unanimous jury provisions, Oregon being the other (and there is a similarly interesting fight going on there to get laws changed)
Originally tweeted by Wesley (@WesleyLowery) on August 23, 2021.