ABSTRACT
In Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 US 145 (1968), the US Supreme Court identified the circumstances under which states must provide a criminal defendant with a jury trial. The Supreme Court of Louisiana refused to review the case, and Duncan then appealed to the USU.S. Supreme Court, claiming violation of his rights under the Sixth Amendment, as applied to the states by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees trial by jury in all criminal cases that, if tried in a federal court, would fall within the guidelines of the Sixth Amendment. The majority opinion, written by Justice Hugo L. Black, reflected that two years' imprisonment did not signal a petty offense and that potential deprivation of liberty for that amount of time would require a jury trial in federal court.
