In 48 states and federal court, a unanimous jury verdict is required for a criminal conviction for a serious offense. Louisiana (until recently) and Oregon permitted a conviction on a 10-2 verdict. In Apodaca v. Oregon, 406 U.S. 404 (1972), and its companion case, Johnson v. Louisiana, 406 U.S. 356 (1972) (collectively Apodaca), a plurality of the U.S. Supreme Court held that although the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury requires a unanimous jury verdict in federal criminal trials, it does not require a unanimous verdict in state criminal trials.
Evangelisto Ramos was tried in Louisiana state court in 2014 on a charge of second-degree murder. Under Louisiana’s then-applicable nonunanimity law, Ramos was convicted on a 10-2 verdict. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 2018 Louisiana enacted a law requiring unanimous jury verdicts in felony trials. This new law, however, did not avail Ramos because it applied only prospectively to crimes committed on or after Jan. 1, 2019. See 2018 La. Sess. Law Serv. Act 722.