In another blow to fairness, the courts found that I would have a nonunanimous jury, meaning that only 10 jurors had to agree on a verdict instead of 12. Louisiana and Oregon are the only two states in America where defendants can be convicted by fewer than 12 jurors, a system created to marginalize the votes of black jurors when courts were first required by law to allow blacks on juries. Since it is easier to get a conviction with a nonunanimous jury, the system was also established in Louisiana to help fill its prisons when it relied on convict labor to replace slave labor during
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