Old split-jury verdicts in Louisiana could be revisited under advancing proposal

Yahoo

01-05-2025

Herman Evans, who spent decades in prison for a crime he didn't commit, embraces a supporter after a Louisiana Senate committee approved a bill Tuesday, April 29, 2025, that would allow persons convicted by a split jury verdict to seek a retrial. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled split jury verdicts were unconstitutional, but it left it up to states to decide if they would apply the law retroactively to past convictions. (Delaney Nolan/Louisiana Illuminator)
A packed legislative committee meeting erupted with cheers and sobs of joy Tuesday, as a bill advanced a long-awaited remedy for people imprisoned in Louisiana under unconstitutional split-jury verdicts.
Senate Bill 218, by Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, would allow people convicted by non-unanimous juries to petition for their cases to be reviewed. The Senate Committee on Judiciary B approved the proposal in a 5-1 vote.
Up until 2018, Louisiana and Oregon were the only two states where defendants could be convicted if at least 10 of 12 jurors voted guilty. The standard goes back to a Jim Crow era law intended to nullify the voice of Black jurors. As of 2020, about 80% of people incarcerated in Louisiana on split-jury verdicts were Black based on a Project of Justice Initiative analysis.
Louisiana voters approved an amendment in 2018 to do away with split verdicts, though it did not impact persons already tried and sentenced by a non-unanimous jury vote. In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ramos v. Louisiana that split-jury convictions are unconstitutional, but justices left it up to states to determine if the ruling would apply retroactively to older cases.
Two years later, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled the change applied only to verdicts after 2018, meaning those convicted by split juries before 2018 had no recourse.
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Duplessis' bill would change that, but it still faces long odds in the Republican-dominated legislature. The bill, which found bipartisan support in committee, would need nine Republicans to support it on the Senate floor in addition to all Democrats. Gov. Jeff Landry, when he was attorney general, argued against the abandonment of split-jury verdicts when Ramos was before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Some of Landry's arguments were echoed by the Louisiana District Attorneys Association, which opposes the bill. Its members argue, in part, that it would be too complex and costly to retry people convicted by split juries.
There are currently 773 people incarcerated in Louisiana on non-unanimous jury convictions, according to the Promise of Justice Initiative.
Duplessis' bill would allow them to petition for a retrial. If a judge deems the defendant eligible, their conviction would be voided, and a district attorney would then decide whether to re-prosecute their case, offer a plea deal, or dismiss the charges.
Duplessis and other supporters pointed out any retrials would still favor the prosecutor because they could reuse witness testimony from the original trial, while the defense couldn't necessarily cross-examine those witnesses if they have since died or are otherwise unavailable.
Will Snowden, a Loyola University law professor, said 13 people convicted by non-unanimous verdicts in Louisiana have been exonerated, citing figures from the Innocence Project New Orleans.
Striking testimony for the bill came from Herman Evans, who was convicted in 1980 on a 10-2 jury and spent decades in Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola for a murder he didn't commit. The Promise of Justice Initiative had his conviction overturned in 2024.
Evans spoke of losing his father, daughter and three sisters while wrongly imprisoned.
'Every time I tried to make my voice heard over 37 years, I kept getting one word: denied,' Evans said. Upon release, he said, 'I left a lot of people behind that deserve to have their unconstitutional convictions overturned.'
Jermaine Hudson, who was wrongfully convicted in 1999 in New Orleans by a split jury, spoke to the committee alongside Bobby Gumpright, whose false testimony as an 18-year-old led to Hudson's conviction. Hudson spent 22 years in prison for an armed robbery that never happened.
On Tuesday, Gumpright wept as he spoke of Hudson's forgiveness.
'I couldn't change the past, but I could refuse to live the lie any longer while injustice continued,' Gumpright said. 'Louisiana can't change the past. But Louisiana can refuse to let its injustice live on.'
Zach Daniels, executive director of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association, disagreed with the assessment that all non-unanimous jury convictions are unjust.
Some jurors who don't vote for convictions do so because they actually want stronger charges, such as first-degree murder instead of second-degree murder, Daniels said. He did not offer data on the frequency of such cases, but he disputed the Promise of Justice Initiative's count of people who could be entitled to new trials. The number is much larger than 773, he said.
Sen. Joseph Bouie, D-New Orleans, rejected Daniels' arguments.
'What about those individuals who were convicted and were innocent? The scope of work should not be an issue. The cost should not be an issue,' Bouie said. 'If we do not afford the opportunity, we close the doors of justice that are the result of a system of racism that created this problem.'
Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, agreed with Bouie. 'If there's just one innocent person serving time for a crime that they didn't do, I don't know how you justify the rationale that [because] this is difficult to do, we shouldn't do it,' McMath told Daniels.
Duplessis also argued it is a disservice to victims to not ensure the right person has been convicted — and that wrongfully convicted people are themselves victims.
The dialogue between Duplessis and Daniels grew heated toward the end of the two-hour hearing, as Duplessis challenged him on several points. He criticized Daniels for not having reached out to district attorneys in Oregon, where more than 700 people were retried after split-jury verdicts and it did not snarl the courts.
'I think it's a slap in the face to this committee because what it shows us is that you're not trying to solve the problem,' Duplessis told Daniels. 'I'm trying to find a solution. The question is: Are you?'
After Sen. Robert Owen, R-Slidell, cast the clinching 'yes' vote to advance the bill to the Senate floor, cheers, applause and cries of 'thank you' broke out from the committee room crowd. Owen joined McMath, Bouie, Duplessis and Sen. Jimmie Harris, D-New Orleans, in supporting the proposal.
Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, cast the only vote in opposition. He briefly noted during debate that no district attorneys showed up to support Duplessis' bill at Tuesday's committee hearing.
'There's no daylight between public opinion and doing the right thing on non-unanimous juries,' Mary-Patricia Wray, who's lobbied for the Promise of Justice Initiative since 2016, told Illuminator. 'This issue isn't controversial outside the Capitol. Voters already decided what justice looks like. Now it's the legislature's turn to catch up.'
In the hallway after the hearing, people who had come to support the bill wept openly and hugged each other.
'I feel great,' Evans told the Illuminator, smiling broadly before turning away for another embrace.
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