NEW ORLEANS — A landmark case that changed legal history in the United States is being re-tried in New Orleans this week.
A re-trial for Evangelisto Ramos is currently underway. He was accused of a gruesome murder in 2014.
Prosecutors say he stabbed 43-year-old Trinece Fedison in Central City and dumped her body in a trash can.
He was convicted of the crime in 2016 on a 10-2 jury vote and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. But in 48 other states, that split-jury verdict would have ended in a mistrial.
So, in 2019, Ramos’ case ended up at the nation’s highest court.
His attorneys argued to the Supreme Court that anything short of a unanimous jury conviction violated Ramos’ 6th amendment right to a jury trial.
The court agreed, and in 2020 issued a ruling, which declared non-unanimous jury verdicts unconstitutional. The court’s opinion cited the racist origins of the laws, which only still existed in Oregon and Louisiana.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his opinion, “Then and now, non-unanimous juries can silence the voices and negate the votes of black jurors, especially in cases with black defendants or black victims, and only one or two black jurors.”
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.
Louisiana's new law prohibiting non-unanimous verdicts does not apply retroactively.
We reached out to the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office and the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office for any numbers on how many cases may be retried.
Now, nearly nine years after the initial murder, the case that started it all is back on the docket.
Prosecutors will seek Ramos’ conviction by a unanimous jury, as the 50-year-old maintains his innocence.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.