Please join the Criminal Law Society, the Stanford Prisoner Advocacy and Resources Coalition, and the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic for a lunch event to discuss the legal, journalistic, and political movement leading to Ramos v. Louisiana. In Ramos—which will be argued on October 7, 2019— the U.S. Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of permitting juries in criminal cases to find defendants guilty by nonunanimous votes. Louisiana is one of two states that allows such convictions by nonunanimous verdicts (Oregon is the other). The Clinic is representing Mr. Ramos in his challenge to a conviction where only 10 of 12 jurors concurred in the guilty verdict.

We will be joined by the Clinic’s co-counsel, G. Ben Cohen, who filed the petition for certiorari in this case, and his colleague Calvin Duncan. Mr. Cohen has been working tirelessly for over a decade to overturn Louisiana’s nonunanimous jury law. Mr. Duncan likewise has been assisting those convicted in this manner—first as a “jailhouse lawyer” while incarcerated in Angola Prison, and more recently from a law office in New Orleans. He was recently profiled by Adam Liptak in the New York Times. We will also be joined by The Advocate’s John Simerman, who won a Pulitzer Prize this spring for his reporting on the racial effects of nonunanimous jury verdicts. Professor Jeff Fisher will moderate.