Attorney Hardwell Ward
A legal showdown is brewing over whether persons convicted of serious crimes by split jury verdicts in Louisiana should get a new trial. After voters statewide banned non-unanimous convictions, the New Orleans-based 4th Circuit Appeals Court ruled in favor of re-trials, but the Lake Charles-based 3rd Circuit ruled new trials weren’t needed. Hardell Ward is a defense attorney, who represents two men – one in each court district – whose fates would be affected either way.
“We believe under Lousiana law that if you are convicted by a non-unanimous jury that’s not a true conviction and therefore the only remedy is a new trial,” Ward said.
Louisiana’s law allowing 10-to-2 convictions was over 120 years old, and many agree it smacked of Jim Crow and often led to sometimes innocent persons of color going to prison. It was overturned by voters in 2018. The differing court decisions on re-trying those convictions mean the state Supreme Court will have to settle the matter. Ward feels it’s the only correct thing to do.
“We know the history of it. It affects people of color and minorities and it takes away our voices in true participation in our criminal justice system,” Ward said.
Opponents of re-trials say that would create chaos on court dockets, but Ward thinks a great number of the hundreds of cases could be settled with a plea deal and no jury involvement.
“I think chaos is staying back and seeing the whole picture without doing work, drilling down of where cases are, who would the work, where the work would come and how they would actually affect them,” Ward said.
Ward says the Louisiana Supreme Court could take up the case in Spring of 2022, but he cannot be certain.
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