ADThe court considered a case from Louisiana about whether a jury’s verdict must be unanimous and another about whether Kansas and other states must allow an insanity defense for criminal defendants. Only two states, Louisiana and Oregon, allow convictions on variations such as 10-2 or 11-1. In that case, the court ruled 5 to 4 that the Sixth Amendment requires unanimous verdicts in federal trials. But one of the five, Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., said unanimous verdicts were not required in state trials. In no state, Kagan told Kahler’s lawyer Sarah Schrup, “would your client be found insane.”The case is Kahler v. Kansas.

Source: Washington Post October 07, 2019 22:28 UTC