Louisiana’s Supreme Court is weighing whether people convicted by non-unanimous verdicts should have their convictions overturned.
A man in prison for murder is seeking judicial relief because the verdict handed down by the jury was not unanimous.
Reginald Reddick’s attorney argued before the high court on Reddick’s behalf. He was convicted in 1997 on a 10 to 2 jury verdict.
Criminal justice reform advocates say about 1,500 people jailed in the state were found guilty by jury decisions that were not unanimous.
In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that non-unanimous verdicts were unconstitutional. But Louisiana’s attorney general is against retroactively reversing convictions. And several Supreme Court justices expressed concern about reversing that many trials during oral arguments.
