Louisiana Senate rejects bill for new trials on Jim Crow juries

BATON ROUGE, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — A segment of people in Louisiana prisons have lost their chance to appeal their cases.

The Louisiana Senate failed to pass Senate Bill 218, which Senator Royce Duplessis introduced and would have allowed people convicted by “Jim Crow Juries” to receive new trials.

In 1898, Louisiana adopted the split jury convictions during a constitutional convention. This allowed white majority juries to convict black people without coming to a unanimous decision.

The practice of non-unanimous convictions continued in Louisiana until 2018. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that the practice violated the right to an impartial jury, a right guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment.

Oregon, the other state that allowed split decisions, granted new trials to hundreds of people. SB 218 would have given people in Louisiana jails the same relief.

SB 218 failed on a 9-26 vote, completely along party lines.

Republican lawmakers were concerned with overburdening courts with additional trials and the possibility of witnesses being dead or evidence being lost.

Supporters countered that district attorneys would ultimately decide whether to hold new trials and that transcripts of testimony from old trials are already used in cases.

New Orleans Democrat Senator Royce Duplessis, who authored the bill, said, “If we choose to vote down this bill, we’re saying that justice has an expiration date. We have an opportunity in Louisiana to remove this stain, because right now we are the only ones wearing it.”

The lopsided nature of the vote, with only one month left in this year’s Legislative Session, makes it unlikely that the bill will have another chance at this session despite the fact that 65% of voters surveyed supported it.

For now, an estimated 1,000 men and women in Louisiana prisons, despite the jury not being unanimous, are waiting for a path out.