[Opds-contracts] Ramos, PCR, and OPDS

[Kaysea R. Dahlstrom]

Good afternoon,

As most of you know, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion on Monday in Ramos v. Louisiana, which finally provided clarity to the issue of non-unanimous jury verdicts.  The Sixth Amendment right to a "trial by an impartial jury" requires that a jury verdict of guilty be unanimous.  The 14th Amendment incorporates this right upon the states.  Finally, Oregon's scheme of non-unanimous verdicts has been struck down.

The opinion is clear on one issue - going forward, guilty verdicts must be unanimous.  That will also apply to those whose cases are on direct appeal.  However, the opinion is murky as to what this means to people who have previously been convicted pursuant to non-unanimous jury verdicts.  Can people collaterally attack their conviction?  If so, who can attack their conviction?  Does it matter if the attorney requested a unanimous verdict and was denied?  Does it matter if the jury was polled?  What about people who pled guilty rather than having a trial?

OPDS is anticipating an avalanche of PCR filings in response to Ramos.  To that end, OPDS has been coordinating for months with Prof. Aliza Kaplan, the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic at Lewis and Clark Law School, and the law firm of O'Connor and Weber, to have a coordinated response to Ramos.  The team will be identifying cases as they come in to identify lead cases, and they will be recruiting other attorneys to provide public defense representation to these clients.

To that end, The Criminal Justice Reform Clinic at Lewis & Clark Law School is available to provide information about and assistance with pro se PCR filings relating to the US Supreme Court's opinion in Ramos.  The Clinic will be providing educational materials, video training in the prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic (and live training when the prisons reopen), sample filings, and case review where needed.

The Clinic will be looking at cases with known non-unanimous jury convictions along with any (non murder) felony cases where the jury instructions included non-unanimity as an option--this includes filings for timely, untimely and successive PCR claims.

Please send all questions, inquiries, and requests to assistance to:

Professor Aliza Kaplan/Criminal Justice Reform Clinic
10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, OR 97219
akaplan at lclark.edu<mailto:akaplan at lclark.edu>

Thanks,
Eric

Eric J. Deitrick
General Counsel
Office of Public Defense Services
eric.j.deitrick at opds.state.or.us<mailto:eric.j.deitrick at opds.state.or.us>
503-378-2750


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