Amicus curiae brief of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Oregon Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in support of the petition for certiorari.

Argument: 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.