Brief filed: 09/04/2012
Documents
Miller v. Louisiana
United States Supreme Court; Case No. 12-162
Prior Decision
Decision below 83 So.3d 178 (La. App. 2011).
Argument(s)
The petition should be granted in order to decide whether the Sixth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendments require unanimity in state criminal cases. The traditional unanimity requirement serves as a basic component of the Sixth Amendment’s jury guarantee, which is not currently being afforded to accused persons in Louisiana and Oregon. Amici urge that the petition be granted in order to address whether the Court’s decisions in Apodaca v. Oregon, 406 U.S. 404 (1972) and Johnson v. Louisiana, 406 U.S. 356 (1972) properly interpreted the Sixth Amendment jury trial guarantee to permit non-unanimous juries, which were unknown at the time of the nation’s founding.
Author(s)
Timothy P. O’Toole and Mia P. Haessly, Miller and Chevalier, Chartered, Washington, DC.