NEW ORLEANS — The man whose successful appeal of a murder conviction made nonunanimous jury decisions unconstitutional, was declared not guilty during his retrial in New Orleans.
Evangelisto Ramos was accused of stabbing 43-year-old Trinece Fedison and dumping her body in a trash can. He was convicted in 2016 on a 10-2 jury vote and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In 2019, his case ended up in the Supreme Court. Ramos' attorneys argued to the Supreme Court that anything short of a unanimous jury conviction violated his 6th amendment right to a jury trial.
The court agreed, and in 2020 issued a ruling, which declared nonunanimous jury verdicts unconstitutional. The court’s opinion cited the racist origins of the laws, which only still existed in Oregon and Louisiana.
Ramos' second trial ended on Wednesday night. This time, all 12 jurors decided that the prosecution failed to prove that he killed Fedison.
Ramos spent more than eight years in prison before his second trial.
The Supreme Court decision paved the way for hundreds of defendants convicted of violent crimes by divided juries to be given new trials, but it’s still not clear how many may be given new trials.
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