Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal Holds Ramos Retroactive in PJI Case

Chalmette, La – The Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal reversed the decision of a St. Bernard Parish judge today when it found the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling about unconstitutional Jim Crow juries retroactively applicable to Julio Melendez.

“This ruling is evidence that the courts are willing to right historic wrongs that continue to infect our present,” said Hardell Ward, Senior Attorney at Promise of Justice Initiative.

Melendez—a client of Promise of Justice Initiative’s Jim Crow Juries Project—was convicted of second degree murder after a jury trial in July of 1987, where one juror did not find him guilty. On February 17, 2021, Mr. Melendez joined more than 1,000 others in Louisiana in filing an application for post-conviction relief, seeking a remedy for his unconstitutional conviction. A trial judge denied him a remedy at a hearing on August 24, 2021.

Today the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal became the first Louisiana appellate court to find that men and women unconstitutionally convicted by non-unanimous jury verdicts should be entitled to a remedy.

Judge Regina Bartholomew-Woods, writing the opinion of the court, concluded the opinion stating:

Considering the historically racist motivations behind the adoption of the non-unanimous jury verdict practice, this Court finds the practice, from its inception, was not steeped in fairness. Therefore, in the interest of justice and fundamental fairness, we hereby grant the writ and reverse the judgment of the district court.

Presently, 200 requests to review district court decisions are pending with the Louisiana Supreme Court, who has not granted a case to consider the retroactivity of Ramos.