Johnson v. Louisiana - Significance, Impact

court oyez william appellant

Appellant

Frank Johnson

Appellee

State of Louisiana

Appellant's Claim

Louisiana's constitutional provisions, which allowed less-than-unanimous guilty verdicts in criminal cases, violated the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant

Richard A. Buckley

Chief Lawyer for Appellee

Louise Korns

Justices for the Court

Harry A. Blackmun, Warren E. Burger, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., William H. Rehnquist, Byron R. White (writing for the Court)

Justices Dissenting

William J. Brennan, Jr., William O. Douglas, Thurgood Marshall, Potter Stewart

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

22 May 1972

Decision

The reasonable doubt standard contained in the Due Process Clause of the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment was not violated by nonunanimous jury verdicts.

Related Cases

Maxwell v. Dow, 176 U.S. 581 (1900).
Jordan v. Massachusetts, 225 U.S. 167 (1912).
Andres v. United States, 333 U.S. 740 (1948).
Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145 (1968).
Apodaca v. Oregon, 406 U.S. 404 (1972).

Johnson v. Louisiana - Significance

Appellant, Frank Johnson, was convicted by a split decision of 12 jurors: nine voted to convict and three to acquit. He contended that provisions under the Louisiana law violated the Constitution because the jury verdict was not unanimous. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, held that a "split-verdict" system was constitutionally "inoffensive" and reasoned that less-than-unanimous jury verdicts did n…

Johnson v. Louisiana - Impact

Although at odds with arguments made by the dissenting justices, the majority opinion ruled that due process of law with respect to the Fourteenth Amendment was served regardless of whether a conviction was obtained by a unanimous jury decision. They held that a "reasonable doubt standard" was not violated by verdicts rendered by a split jury. Justices upheld a Louisiana state law which set in mot…

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