Constitutional Accountability Center Constitutional Accountability Center

Criminal Justice

Ensuring that our criminal justice system treats all in America with fairness, dignity, and equality
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Alcatraz Prison | miss_millions, Flickr

Summary

CAC works to ensure that all who interact with the criminal justice system enjoy the rights to which they are entitled and are treated with the dignity and equality promised to them by the Constitution.

Criminal Justice in Brief

Courtroom | Clyde Robinson, Flickr

The Supreme Court has made important progress in certain areas of criminal justice, such as it did in Montgomery v. Louisiana. However, America still has a long way to go, and CAC works to ensure that all who encounter the criminal justice system can exercise their full range of rights.

Featured Case

Criminal Justice October 7, 2019

Ramos v. Louisiana

In 2015, petitioner Evangelisto Ramos was indicted in Louisiana state court for second-degree murder. Ramos maintained his innocence and demanded a jury trial. After deliberating, ten of the twelve jurors found him guilty, and under a provision of Louisiana’s constitution allowing for non-unanimous jury verdicts, that was enough to convict Ramos. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Ramos appealed his conviction, arguing that the U.S. Constitution requires jury unanimity to convict. The Louisiana Court of Appeal, relying on a 1972 Supreme Court decision called Apodaca v. Oregon, rejected Ramos’s claim that Louisiana’s non-unanimity rule is unconstitutional, and...

Case Timeline

Current
  • The Supreme Court hears oral arguments
  • CAC files amicus brief

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