ABSTRACT
In Johnson v. Louisiana, 406 US 356 (1972), the US Supreme Court ruled that it was not mandatory for a jury verdict to be unanimous. The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees an impartial jury and, following English tradition, the framers intended juries should reach unanimous verdicts or none at all. The defendant was convicted of robbery by a nine-three jury verdict in the Criminal District Court of the Parish of Orleans. The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the conviction, and the defendant appealed to the US Supreme Court. Lyndon B. Johnson argued that a unanimous jury verdict was required under the Due Process Clause in order to give substance to the reasonable-doubt standard of proof. Johnson contended that the less-than-unanimous verdict was also a violation of the Equal Protection Clause because Louisiana required a unanimous verdict in capital cases and by five-person juries in other serious crimes.
