Here is an open letter written by the ABA President, H. Thomas Wells Jr. encouraging the Supreme Court to take up Bowen v. Oregon, which challenges Oregon's use of 10-2 verdicts.
In the 1957 film classic "Twelve Angry Men," jurors deciding the fate of a murder suspect question, cajole and nearly come to blows en route to reaching a unanimous verdict. The film offers a dramatization of what should be going on in jury rooms every day: passionate deliberation and review of the trial evidence, such that jurors reach a unanimous verdict -- one that leaves no reasonable doubt in the minds of reasonable citizens who will hear or read about the verdict ( to continue reading go here.)
For a non-knee-jerk argument (I promise!) in favor or non-unanimous verdicts, please see my blog post on the topic at http://tinyurl.com/lcg923. There is a link there, as well, to my 2000 Law Review article on the topic.
Posted by: Edward P. Schwartz | September 22, 2009 at 03:19 PM