Apodaca v. Oregon
Apodaca v. Oregon | |
---|---|
Holding | |
There is no constitutional right to a unanimous jury verdict in non-federal criminal cases. Thus Oregon's law did not violate due process. | |
Court membership | |
| |
Case opinions | |
Plurality | White, joined by Burger, Blackmun, Rehnquist |
Concurrence | Blackmun |
Concurrence | Powell (in judgment) |
Dissent | Douglas, joined by Brennan, Marshall |
Dissent | Brennan, joined by Marshall |
Dissent | Stewart, joined by Brennan, Marshall |
Dissent | Marshall, joined by Brennan |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amend. VI | |
Overruled by | |
Ramos v. Louisiana (2020) |
Apodaca v. Oregon, 406 U.S. 404 (1972), was a
Justice
Apodaca v. Oregon was overruled by Ramos v. Louisiana (2020).[4]
Background on non-unanimous jury verdicts
Federal law requires that juries return a unanimous verdict—one that all members of the jury agree upon—in criminal trials.[2] While most states follow the same requirement for felony convictions, at the time when Apodaca reached the U.S. Supreme Court, neither Oregon nor Louisiana required state court juries to return unanimous verdicts.[5]
Oregon created its rule in 1934 by state constitutional amendment.[6][7] Specifically, as long as at least 10 jurors on a 12-member jury agreed, the jury could render a verdict of guilty or not guilty.[5][8] The Louisiana Legislature passed a similar "Majority Rule" law in 1880, allowing for jury verdicts of 9–3, which was later ratified at its 1898 constitutional convention.[5][9][10]
In 2018, Louisiana voters passed a constitutional amendment that ended their practice of non-unanimous juries.[11][12] When Apodaca was overruled by Ramos v. Louisiana in April 2020, Oregon was the only state that still allowed non-unanimous jury verdicts for felonies (although first-degree murder convictions require a unanimous jury verdict).[5][13][14]
Facts and procedural posture
Robert Apodaca, Henry Morgan Cooper, Jr., and James Arnold Madden, were convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, burglary in a dwelling, and grand larceny, respectively, in separate trials in Oregon state court.[15] All three juries returned non-unanimous verdicts: Apodaca and Madden's juries voted 11–1 to convict, and Cooper's jury voted 10–2.[15] They appealed their convictions to the Court of Appeals of Oregon, arguing that they were entitled to have the jury instructed that jurors must unanimously agree to convict.[16] The Court of Appeals of Oregon, sitting en banc, affirmed their convictions. In doing so, the court relied on a previous Oregon Supreme Court case, State v. Gann, 254 Or. 549 (1969),[16] that had upheld the provision of the Oregon Constitution allowing the 10–2 jury practice as not a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.[17] The Oregon Supreme Court denied review, and the three sought review in the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Johnson v. Louisiana (a case decided by the Supreme Court on the same day as Apodaca), a criminal defendant in Louisiana raised the same issue: whether a less-than-unanimous jury verdict in state court criminal cases violates a defendant's constitutional rights.[18] Frank Johnson was convicted of armed robbery by a Louisiana state court jury verdict of 9–3, which was permissible under Louisiana law. However, unlike in Apodaca, where petitioners argued that this practice violated their Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial (as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment),[19] the petitioner in Johnson raised Fourteenth Amendment equal protection and due process claims.[3] The Supreme Court of Louisiana affirmed his conviction, holding that a 9–3 jury verdict did not violate his equal protection or due process rights.[20] Johnson petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review.
Both Apodaca and Johnson were argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 1, 1971, and reargued on January 10, 1972.[21] Arguing the case for the state of Oregon were Jacob Tanzer and Lee Johnson; both would later serve on the Oregon Court of Appeals. The Court decided both cases on May 22, 1972, and upheld the Oregon and Louisiana non-unanimous jury convictions.[21]
U.S. Supreme Court decision and reasoning
First, the Supreme Court held that the constitutional right to trial by jury found in the Sixth Amendment (made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment[19]) was not violated by a less-than-unanimous jury verdict in state criminal court.[22]
The Court likened jury unanimity to the 12-person requirement for juries. In Williams v. Florida,[23] decided just four years before Apodaca, the Court held that Florida's refusal to impanel more than six members for a jury trial did not violate the defendant's Sixth Amendment rights. Although the Court in Williams recognized a long common law tradition of having 12-member juries, it stated, "[w]e conclude, in short, as we began: the fact that the jury at common law was composed of precisely 12 is a historical accident."[23] The Court in Apodaca drew parallels between the 12-member requirement and the unanimous requirement: both "arose during the Middle Ages and had become an accepted feature of the common-law jury by the 18th century."[24] And yet neither a 12-member jury nor jury unanimity, the Court held, were constitutional requirements.
In its reasoning, the Court recognized, as it did in
Second, the Court also held that jury unanimity is not mandated by the Fourteenth Amendment's requirement that racial minorities not be systemically excluded during voir dire, the process by which jurors are chosen for a trial.[28] Petitioners had argued that allowing non-unanimous jury verdicts skirts the requirement to not exclude minorities because the majority could simply out-vote minority members of the jury by 10–2 or 11–1. In rejecting this argument, the Court first said that defendants do not have a right to have members of their community on their particular jury, but rather that minority members simply cannot be systematically excluded from juries. Next, the Court said that even if racial minorities found themselves in a jury minority, the rest of the jury would hear their voices and that there is "no proof for the notion that a majority will disregard its instructions and cast its votes for guilt or innocence based on prejudice rather than the evidence".[29]
Concurrences and dissents
The four-justice
Because Apodaca and Johnson presented the same question, the Court decided both cases on the same day and some of the justices' opinions apply to both cases. In Apodaca, Justice White wrote the plurality opinion of the court, which was joined by Chief Justice Burger, Justice Blackmun, and Justice Rehnquist.[31] Justice Stewart dissented, and Justice Brennan and Justice Marshall joined that dissent.[32] Similarly, in Johnson, Justice White wrote the opinion of the Court,[33] and Justice Stewart filed a dissenting opinion, which Justice Brennan and Justice Marshall joined.[34] There were five other written opinions that applied to both Apodaca and Johnson. Justice Blackmun and Justice Powell each wrote a concurring opinion; and Justices Douglas, Brennan, and Marshall each wrote a dissent (Justice Douglas's dissent was joined by Justice Brennan and Justice Marshall; Justices Brennan and Marshall joined each other's dissents).[35]
Controversial history
Recent scholarly debate has focused on the historical origins of Oregon and Louisiana's less-than-unanimous jury practices.
Oregon's constitutional amendment was put on the ballot[6] a year after a lone holdout juror prevented a Jewish man from being found guilty of murdering a Protestant one.[13] On Nov. 25, 1933, the day after the jury convicted on the lesser offense of manslaughter (resulting in a three-year sentence), The Morning Oregonian "railed against the juror in an editorial tinged with racist undertones and nativist fervor," in which the editors wrote that "the vast immigration into America from southern and eastern Europe, of people untrained in the jury system, have combined to make the jury of twelve increasingly unwieldy and unsatisfactory."[13][36] Previous editorials around the same time "bemoaned 'mixed-blood' jurors and lamented the role that some immigrants played on juries, questioning their 'sense of responsibility' and 'views on crime and punishment.'"[13] The Oregon constitutional amendment passed on May 18, 1934.[7]
In the 1990s, an Oregon study found that too few minorities were called for jury duty, even fewer served on juries, and preemptory challenges were being used based on race.[37] Furthermore, other studies show that non-unanimous juries make it more likely that minority members on a jury can be out-voted.[38] The Supreme Court in Apodaca had considered this issue, but hypothesized that the majority would still carefully consider the objections of minority jurors before overruling them.[26] The Court lent further support to the states' non-unanimous jury verdict systems by saying that they helped prevent hung juries with holdouts who refuse to convict–or acquit. Because this rule can go either way, it could benefit some defendants who will be acquitted of a crime instead of having to go through another trial.[26]
Louisiana's legislature changed its Code of Practice to allow for non-unanimous jury verdicts in 1880, during the Jim Crow era. Louisiana's white land owners struggled to replace free slave labor, and the state began
Louisiana officially ended its non-unanimous jury verdict system by constitutional amendment in 2018.[11]
Scholars and politicians had argued that Oregon should also end its practice.[40][41]
On April 20, 2020, the Supreme Court overruled Apodaca v. Oregon in Ramos v. Louisiana.[4]
See also
References
- ^ Apodaca v. Oregon, 406 U.S. 404 (1972).
- ^ a b Fed. R. Crim. P. 31.
- ^ a b Johnson v. Louisiana, 406 U.S. 356 (1972).
- ^ a b Ramos v. Louisiana, No. 18-5924, 590 U.S. ___ (2020).
- ^ SSRN 2922181.
- ^ a b Voters' pamphlet, State of Oregon special election (May 18, 1934), https://digital.osl.state.or.us/islandora/object/osl%3A64497/datastream/OBJ/view Archived 2021-03-08 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ a b c d "Introduction and Measure Listings, 1902-2018," 2019-2020 Oregon Blue Book: Almanac & Fact Book, https://sos.oregon.gov/blue-book/Documents/elections/initiative.pdf.
- ^ Voters added a provision that allows "that in the circuit court ten members of the jury may render a verdict of guilty or not guilty, save and except a verdict of guilty for first degree murder, which shall be found only by unanimous verdict." OR. CONST. art I, § 11.
- ^ Esman, Marjorie R. "Guest column: Non-unanimous jury verdicts steeped in racist past". The Advocate. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
- ^ a b "Timeline: Louisiana's split-verdict jury law and its racist, white supremacist roots," The Advocate (Apr. 7, 2011), https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/courts/article_5db560ac-3a8e-11e8-b5de-874f8cdde5a5.html
- ^ a b Slobe, Erik. "Louisiana votes to require unanimous jury decision in criminal cases". www.jurist.org. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
- ^ Amended Louisiana Constitution, Art. I, § 17.
- ^ a b c d Kavanaugh, Shane Dixon (November 7, 2018). "Oregon now alone in allowing non-unanimous jury convictions". oregonlive.com. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
- ^ de Vogue, Ariana (April 20, 2020). "Supreme Court says unanimous jury verdicts required in state criminal trials for serious offenses". CNN. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
- ^ a b Apodaca, 406 U.S. at 405–06.
- ^ a b State v. Plumes, 1 Or. App. 483, 484 (1969), aff'd sub nom. Apodaca v. Oregon, 406 U.S. 404 (1972).
- ^ State v. Gann, 463 P.2d 570 (1969).
- ^ Johnson v. Louisiana, 406 U.S. 356, Oral Argument,https://www.oyez.org/cases/1970/69-5035.
- ^ a b c Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145 (1968).
- ^ State v. Johnson, 255 La. 314 (1970), aff'd, 406 U.S. 356 (1972).
- ^ a b Apodaca v. Oregon, Oyez, https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/69-5046; Johnson v. Louisiana, Oyez, https://www.oyez.org/cases/1970/69-5035.
- ^ Apodaca, 406 U.S. at 414.
- ^ a b c Williams v. Florida, 399 U.S. 78 (1970).
- ^ Apodaca, 406 U.S. at 407.
- ^ Apodaca, 406 U.S. at 410.
- ^ a b c Apodaca, 406 U.S. at 411.
- ^ Apodaca, 406 U.S. at 410-11.
- ^ Apodaca, 406 U.S. at 404.
- ^ Apodaca, 406 U.S. at 413-14.
- ^ Marks v. United States, 430 U.S. 188 (1977).
- ^ Apodaca, 406 U.S. at 404 (White, J., plurality opinion).
- ^ Apodaca, 406 U.S. at 414 (Stewart, J., dissenting).
- ^ Johnson, 406 U.S. at 357 (White, J., opinion).
- ^ Johnson, 406 U.S. at 397 (Stewart, J., dissenting).
- ^ For Mr. Justice Blackmun's concurring opinion, see 92 S.Ct. 1635. For Mr. Justice Powell's opinion concurring in judgment, see 92 S.Ct. 1635. For Mr. Justice Douglas' dissenting opinion, in which Mr. Justice Brennan and Mr. Justice Marshall joined, see 92 S.Ct. 1643. For Mr. Justice Brennan's dissenting opinion, in which Mr. Justice Marshall joined, see 92 S.Ct. 1650. For Mr. Justice Marshall's dissenting opinion, in which Mr. Justice Brennan joined, see 92 S.Ct. 1651.
- ^ Kavanaugh, Shane Dixon (September 20, 2017). "'Dirty secret' of Oregon jury system could go before U.S. Supreme Court". oregonlive.com. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
- ^ Amy Saack & Aliza B Kaplan, "Overturning Apodaca v. Oregon Should Be Easy: Nonunanimous Jury Verdicts in Criminal Cases Undermine the Credibility of Our Justice System." Rochester, NY. (citing "The Oregon Supreme Court Task Force on Racial/Ethnic Issues in Judicial System, May 1994 Report (1994), https://digital.osl.state.or.us/islandora/object/osl:25704).
- ^ Amy Saack & Aliza B Kaplan, "Overturning Apodaca v. Oregon Should Be Easy: Nonunanimous Jury Verdicts in Criminal Cases Undermine the Credibility of Our Justice System." Rochester, NY. (citing American Bar Association, "Principles for Juries and Jury Trials with Commentary," at 24 (2005) (“A non-unanimous decision rule allows juries to reach a quorum without seriously considering minority voices, thereby effectively silencing those voices and negating their participation.”)).
- ISBN 9780807158999.
- ^ Amy Saack & Aliza B Kaplan, "Overturning Apodaca v. Oregon Should Be Easy: Nonunanimous Jury Verdicts in Criminal Cases Undermine the Credibility of Our Justice System." Rochester, NY.
- ^ "Pressure Grows On Oregon To End Non-Unanimous Verdicts - Law360". www.law360.com. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
Further reading
- Aliza B. Kaplan & Amy Saack, Overturning Apodaca v. Oregon Should Be Easy: Nonunanimous Jury Verdicts in Criminal Cases Undermine the Credibility of Our Justice System (February 28, 2017). 95 Oregon L. Rev. 1 (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2922181.
- Gary J. Jacobsohn, The Unanimous Verdict: Politics and the Jury Trial, 1977 Wash. U. L. Q. 39 (1977).
- Saks, Michael J. (1977). Jury Verdicts: The Role of Group Size and Social Decision Rule. Lexington: Lexington Books. NCJ 42103.
- Jury Trial—Unanimous Verdicts: Johnson v. Louisiana, 406 U.S. 356 (1972), Apodaca v. Oregon, 406 U.S. 404 (1972), 63 J. Crim. L. Criminology & Police Sci. 500 (1972).
External links
- Text of Apodaca v. Oregon, 406 U.S. 404 (1972) is available from: Findlaw Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)