Hi, this is Bradley Phillips with Phillips Law. Today we are bringing you another video, and we are going to talk about the United States Supreme Court decision in Ramos v. Louisiana. Before I get into it, I want to mention that we are still working from home because it is during peak pandemic COVID time. If you hear some noise in the background, that is our neighbors doing construction at eight o’clock in the morning. But with that aside, let’s get into what Ramos is about and what it means for Louisiana.

For a little backstory, Louisiana was one of only two states for about the last hundred years where non-unanimous jury verdicts were allowed to convict someone and send them to jail, potentially for life. If you are not familiar with what a non-unanimous jury is, everywhere else in the country and in all federal criminal courts, you must have all twelve jurors vote guilty to convict someone and send them to jail. Because of some really ugly history and racist Jim Crow origins, Louisiana, along with Oregon, was one of the only places that required just ten jurors to convict. That meant you could be sent to jail even if two people disagreed, or essentially with only one person disagreeing. This was completely unlike the system anywhere else in the country, aside from Oregon.

For decades, there has been a concentrated effort by the criminal defense bar and criminal defense attorneys in general to challenge this rule, arguing that it is not right and that it is unconstitutional. On April 20, 2020, the United States Supreme Court finally issued a solid, affirmative judgment on this. The Court said non-unanimous verdicts are unconstitutional. If you want to send someone to jail, all twelve people on the jury must agree.

This was a huge step, especially since Louisiana changed its law to require unanimous juries starting in 2020. However, that change did nothing for people who were arrested before January 1, 2019. That means there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people sitting in jail right now because they were convicted by juries where fewer than twelve people agreed on their guilt.

That is what the Ramos decision changes. Now I want to talk about what we can do to help. If you have a family member or loved one in jail because they were convicted by a non-unanimous jury, you need to call a lawyer right away. The reality is that starting from April 20, 2020, new timelines and deadlines began. In many cases, there is only a year or two from that date to get something filed on behalf of your loved one to reopen their case, update their petition or appeal, and include information about this new Supreme Court ruling.

When you come to us, we will meet with you and do an evaluation of the case. If we believe there are reasonable grounds to reopen it and try to get it back into court, we will pull the court record, review the jury minutes, sentencing documents, and everything we can to prove that your loved one was convicted by a non-unanimous jury. That means fewer than all twelve people agreed on the verdict.

This area is really complicated. There is a lot going on, and we have even taken continuing legal education classes on it. We are still trying to sort through much of the information, and we hope to get more guidance from the United States Supreme Court in the next year. But that is not a reason to wait. If your case is older and not on direct appeal, it is even more critical to start now. If it is on direct appeal, there are things that can be done right away that you are entitled to.

Do not wait. Get a lawyer now. Call us and we will set up a consultation. Consultations are always free, and we will spend as much time as we need with you to figure out what we can about the case. We will let you know if we believe there is a claim we could pursue to help get your family member, friend, or loved one another chance at the fair trial they should have received in the first place.