House Committee Advances Insufficient Remedy for Unconstitutional Non-Unanimous Jury Verdicts
Today, the Louisiana House Judiciary Committee passed House Bill 588 by Representative Randal Gaines related to convictions based on non-unanimous jury verdicts. This is the third consecutive year that the committee has heard a bill to address the injustice still affecting the nearly 1,500 men and women from every parish who are incarcerated with these unconstitutional convictions. HB 588 now moves to consideration by the full House of Representatives but fails to provide meaningful relief to those imprisoned under unconstitutional convictions.
“In 2015, I made a commitment to God that I would do everything in my power to remove this Jim Crow law from Louisiana, and by a vote of the people in 2018, we did,” said Ed Tarpley, Republican and former Grant Parish district attorney. “Today, the only remedy for the 1,500 people incarcerated is retroactivity. We have to face the fact that we are the only state in the union yet to deal with this problem. The District Attorney’s association should be leading the charge on full retroactivity. The Attorney General’s office should be here leading the charge on full retroactivity. God hates injustice, and the world is watching.”
The bill, including last-minute amendments from the Louisiana District Attorneys Association (LDAA), continues a 130-year history of Louisiana’s failure on this issue. The hearing included almost two hours of testimony in opposition and no testimony in favor of the bill, yet it passed on a vote of 11-1. The bill would create a panel review system structured in a way that would deny most people a meaningful chance at a constitutional remedy. HB 588 creates several significant threshold barriers to access the panel and creates a strict requirement of unanimous affirmative vote from the special committee’s panel in order to grant parole. Parole as a remedy would require a person who was never legally convicted of a crime to live under strict control and regulations outside of prison.
“Louisiana seems content to remain the only state to knowingly enforce a Jim Crow law and intends to do so until the last unconstitutionally convicted person dies in their custody,” said Hardell Ward, Managing Attorney of the Jim Crow Juries Project at the Promise of Justice Initiative. “Fourteen of our clients have died incarcerated on non-unanimous verdicts before getting their fair trial. We will continue to fight, and Jim Crow will fall. Half measures and pyrrhic relief will not sway us.”
Louisiana’s non-unanimous jury system is a relic of the Jim Crow era and was intentionally designed to devalue the voice of Black jurors in our criminal system. In 2018, Louisiana voters overwhelmingly rejected the continued use of non-unanimous jury verdicts. In 2020, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the decision of Louisiana voters when they found non-unanimous jury verdicts unconstitutional in Ramos v. Louisiana. While the people and the courts have rejected non-unanimous jury verdicts, only the Louisiana Legislature can act to have these cases returned to the district courts for new trials.
There has been significant bipartisan advocacy on this issue, including a recent resolution passed overwhelmingly by the Louisiana Republican Party State Central Committee which called for a reasonable legislative remedy for persons still serving sentences for non-unanimous jury convictions. Chairman Gaines, who has authored the bill on non-unanimous verdicts for the past three years, and several committee members stated a shared commitment to work with stakeholders to amend the bill further during this session so that it may provide a reasonable, effective, and constitutional remedy.
Powerful Testimony From Today
King Alexander, elected member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee for District 27D and member at-large to the Calcasieu Republican Parish Executive Committee:
“HB 588 in no way adequately addresses the liberty interests of these improperly incarcerated people. Without a reasonable remedy for their liberty interests, they will have no alternative but to elect the only remaining remedy, namely money damages from the State of Louisiana for the intentional and ongoing constitutional tort. I fear that they will find a sympathetic forum for that in the federal courts, after such a showing of bad faith by the State of Louisiana, after all that has come to light.”
Pastor Beverly Marin of Lake Charles:
“As a pastor and a loved one of someone incarcerated with a non-unanimous jury, I am disappointed that the legislature voted against God and against justice. We all must take accountability for the sins of our past, and today legislators chose not to take this opportunity to right a historical wrong. What will our legislators say when they have to face God and he asks, Why did you not seek justice to help my sons and daughters in prison?”
Matt Bailey, Director of Operations and Development at The Promise of Justice Initiative:
“As a victim of violent crime, what I went through was very surreal and very traumatic. I was not able to identify the person who held a gun to me, but someone was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to 35 years on a non-unanimous jury verdict. It just didn't seem right. Now, it is time to correct what was done before and right these wrongs. Victims deserve a criminal legal system that inspires confidence. Louisianans deserve constitutional outcomes and I don't believe this bill does that.”
Norris Henderson, Executive Director of Voice of the Experienced (VOTE):
“An unjust law is no law at all. I was convicted to life in prison with a non-unanimous jury verdict. I know how important this issue is and what it means to fight for my freedom and justice for all. We will keep pushing as long as it takes until we have a real solution to this historic wrong, a solution we can be proud to bring to our people.”
Paul F. Mayho:
“I was sentenced to die in prison of old age because of an unconstitutional, racist law. I was convicted by only ten jurors out of twelve. Two of the voices of my peers were silenced. Before my conviction, I had a good life. Church every Sunday, a girlfriend of five years, and a well-paying job as a CDL licensed truck driver. In 1991, when I walked into Angola, that whole life was taken from me. I served 30 years before I was released. I am still on parole and subject to control. Under this control, am I truly free?”