By Mrs. Eileen Hunter — about the author. Posted August 11, 2026.
This page is Louisiana context. Mr. Hunter’s filings make no claim under Ramos, and the formal record does not disclose his jury’s numerical split — see the note at the end.
The Jim Crow origin
For 120 years, Louisiana allowed felony convictions without a unanimous jury — 10 votes out of 12 sufficed. The rule was adopted at the state’s 1898 constitutional convention, whose stated mission — quoted by the U.S. Supreme Court — was to “establish the supremacy of the white race,” and whose jury rule was designed to dilute the votes of Black jurors. Only one other state, Oregon, ever had a similar rule. Ramos v. Louisiana, 590 U.S. 83 (2020).
What changed
- 2018: Louisiana voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring unanimous verdicts — but only for crimes committed on or after January 1, 2019.
- 2020: In Ramos v. Louisiana, the Supreme Court held the Sixth Amendment requires unanimity in state felony trials, ending split verdicts for cases still on direct appeal.
- 2021: In Edwards v. Vannoy, 593 U.S. 255, the Court held Ramos does not apply retroactively on federal collateral review — leaving people convicted years earlier by split juries without a federal remedy.
- Since: The Louisiana Supreme Court declined to make Ramos retroactive as a matter of state law, and legislative efforts to create a review path for the roughly 1,500 people still imprisoned on split verdicts — including a 2025 bill — have failed.
Why it belongs on this site
The non-unanimous jury is the clearest modern example of a Louisiana criminal-justice structure that was built for an unjust purpose, produced convictions for a century, and was defended as settled law until the day it fell. It is context for how this state’s system has treated challenges to convictions generally — including the post-conviction process documented on the appeals page, where serious claims are routinely resolved without evidentiary hearings.
Where Tony Hunter’s case stands on this issue
Plainly: nowhere, on the current record. Mr. Hunter was convicted in 2004, when 10–2 verdicts were lawful in Louisiana — but the formal record of his case does not disclose the jury’s numerical split, and none of his filings raise a Ramos claim. Whether the trial record contains a jury polling entry is an open research question we have noted for investigation. If that ever changes, this page will change with it — per our corrections policy.