Oregon Set to Reconsider Non-unanimous Jury Verdicts
After Louisiana voters last year passed a referendum to repeal non-unanimous criminal verdicts, the Oregon legislature is now considering a constitutional amendment to accomplish the same result. If adopted, Oregon would join every other state and the federal government in requiring unanimous verdicts in criminal cases. The ABA Journal provides a fascinating explanation of how the current Oregon policy came about. To tease our readers, we here note that the history of non-unanimous verdicts in Oregon involves the interplay of anti-Semitism and the Ku Klux Klan’s political influence there in the 1930s. Read on.
Muslim Witness Required to Remove Her Veil When Testifying Before a Jury
Picture this courtroom scene: A key prosecution eye witness to a homicide is a devout Muslim who insists on wearing a head veil. Defense counsel wants her to remove the veil during her testimony so that the jury can observe her facial expressions in evaluating her credibility. The judge decided that the witness should remove her veil while testifying but, to limit her exposure to observers, spectators are removed from the courtroom during her testimony. Clearly the defendant’s right to confront his accuser was respected but what about the requirement of a public trial and the witness's right to observe her religious practices? The losing defendant on appeal claimed he was deprived of his right to a public trial. Read here to learn what the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided in response.
Harvard Law School Team Examined the Use of 13,000 Peremptory Strikes in Louisiana Trials
The Vanderbilt Law Review has published the results of massive empirical research on the use of peremptory strikes in recent criminal cases in Louisiana. The researchers concluded, “[A]ggressive measures to counter racial bias in the jury system are needed now more than ever; at the very least, the most overt relics of the original Jim Crow jury era—nonunanimous juries—should be declared unconstitutional."
Conviction Reversed Where Trial Judge Failed to Complete All Three Steps in a Batson Analysis
The District of Columbia’s highest court reversed a conviction in a case where the trial judge failed to complete the third prong of the Batson analysis—an evaluation of whether the prosecutor’s reasons for striking African-Americans were pretextual. The appellate panel ordered a new trial because it would be impossible for the court to undertake the missing analysis years after the trial took place.
Judge Closes Courtroom to the Media in Harvey Weinstein Pretrial Hearing
After a three-hour hearing last Friday, New York State trial judge James Burke excluded the media from a courtroom hearing aimed at determining whether the prosecution can present trial testimony from multiple accusers in addition to the two alleged victims named in the indictment. In allowing the closed hearing over media requests, the judge concluded that disclosing the identity of additional accusers at this time would make it impossible to pick a jury in New York City when a trial begins in September. Weinstein’s lawyer successfully argued, “Let’s limit the damage that’s been done here in the midst of an insatiable media frenzy.”
An Exhibition of Careful Jury Selection in a Capital Case
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