Law Firm Antiracism Alliance and Professor Thomas Aiello file amicus brief in support of retroactive remedy for 120 Jim Crow jury cases

On Friday, September 24, 2021, the Louisiana Supreme Court granted a request by the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance (LFAA) and Professor Thomas Aiello to file an amicus, or “friend of the court,” briefing in a group of more than 120 cases. These cases each involve whether there should be a remedy in cases where people were convicted by Jim Crow jury verdicts.

Jim Crow jury verdicts are jury verdicts where one or two people did not find that the State met its burden of proof to convict, yet still the courts convicted. In other words, a person was able to be convicted even though one or two jurors voted not guilty. The voices of Black jurors were disproportionately silenced and the practice disproportionately affected Black people’s convictions.

Only Louisiana and Oregon allowed such convictions, and today more than 1,500 people remain in prison with these convictions in Louisiana, alone. In April 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court found in Ramos v. Louisiana that these convictions came from a Jim Crow law and that the practice is unconstitutional. Two courts in Louisiana in Caddo and Plaquemines parish, have found that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling should also vacate the convictions of people who had final convictions when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling. The Louisiana Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to consider retroactivity.

The LFAA is an organization of 300 member law firms employing more than 160,000 legal professionals, dedicated to analyzing the legal system and advocating to change laws and policies that encourage, perpetuate or allow racial injustice. Professor Aiello is a professor of history and Africana studies at Valdosta State University. He is the author of Jim Crow’s Last Stand, a book on the history of Jim Crow jury verdicts.

Read the motion here.

Read the brief here.