Brown v. Louisiana

How later courts described this case

• noting that prominent concerns in Ballew, which found criminal trial by five-member jury constitutionally infirm, were that smaller jury leads to less accurate factfinding and greater risk of convicting innocent person, decreases likelihood of hung jury to detriment of defendant, and reduces odds of adequate minority representation
• reversing decision of Louisiana Supreme Court that United States Supreme Court’s decision holding nonunanimous juries for nonpetty offenses unconstitutional should be applied only to juries empaneled after the date of the decision
• made retroactive the decision in Burch v. Louisiana, 441 U.S. 130, 99 S.Ct. 1623, 60 L.Ed.2d 96 (1979), which held that conviction of a non-petty criminal offense by a non-unanimous six-person jury violates the defendant's sixth and fourteenth amendment right to trial by jury
• made retroactive the decision in Burch v. Louisiana, 441 *15 U.S. 130, 60 L.Ed. 2d 96 (1979), which held that conviction of a non-petty criminal offense by a non-unanimous six-person jury violates the defendant’s sixth and fourteenth amendment right to trial by jury

Written by the judges who cited it.