NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Criminal justice reformers say they’ve filed close to 30 petitions to reverse convictions of people found guilty of serious crimes by non-unanimous juries in Louisiana.
And they’ve filed a brief in a pending U.S. Supreme Court case that they hope will result in the reversal of all such cases in the state — an estimated 1,500 to 1,600 of them.
Louisiana voters amended the state constitution last year to outlaw non-unanimous felony convictions. And the U.S. Supreme Court recently said such verdicts were unconstitutional.
But the high court decision doesn’t currently apply in cases where appeals have been exhausted.