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47 Or. L. Rev. 417 (1967-1968)
Should Jury Verdicts Be Unanimous in Criminal Cases

handle is hein.journals/orglr47 and id is 429 raw text is: OREGON Editorial Board Laird C. Kirkpatrick, Editor-in-chief Richard William Riggs, Articles Editor Robert T. Huston, Comments Editor William L. Hallmark, Recent Cases Editor Form Editor: John Wiley Gould Associate Editors Charles A. Griffith Walter M. Hackett James H. Spence William V. Vetter Bernie H. Beaver Edmund R. Bodyfelt Mildred J. Carmack Barry M. Mount Gerald T. Parks, Jr. Jim G. Russell Baron C. Sheldahl Richard A. Stark Thomas W. Mapp, Faculty Adviser June 1968 VOLUME 47 NUMBER 4 LAW REVIEW Issued December, February, April, and June by the University of Oregon School of Law. Sent to active paid members of the Oregon State Bar. To others subscription price $4.00 per annum. (Single copies, $1.25.) Editorial and publication office, School of Law, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, U.S.A. The Editorial Board does not assume collective responsibility for any statements in the articles published in the REviEwW. Each article, comment, recent case note, and book review is identified with the name of the author. Comments Should Jury Verdicts Be Unanimous in Criminal Cases? Less persuasion of a jury is required to convict a person of a felony in Oregon than in almost any other state of the Union. Article I, Sec- tion 11 of the Oregon Constitution provides: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have the right to public trial... provided, however, that in the circuit court ten members of the jury may render a verdict of guilty or not guilty, save and except a verdict of guilty of first degree murder, which shall be found only by a unanimous verdict and not otherwise. Every other state except Louisiana' requires a unanimous verdict to convict a defendant of a felony, although a small minority of states do allow misdemeanor convictions to be based on nonunanimous jury 1 See LA. CONST. art. 7, sec. 41. But even Louisiana requires a unanimous jury for more crimes than does Oregon. See LA. CRim. PRO. CODE ANN. art. 782 (West 1966).