Garcetti Joins Drive Against Unanimous Verdict Rule

Joining the ranks of those calling for a shake-up of the jury system, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said Wednesday that juries in most criminal cases should no longer be required to reach a unanimous verdict.

Instead of the 12-0 verdict for guilty or not guilty that has long been a mainstay of California law, Garcetti said he now favors a verdict of 10-2 in all felony trials except death penalty cases. Because a life is at stake, he said, those verdicts should remain unanimous.

Adopting a 10-2 verdict in other felonies--a change that requires an amendment to the state Constitution--would slash the number of hung juries and save taxpayers millions of dollars that would otherwise be spent on retrials, Garcetti asserted. It would also, he maintained, spare crime victims the “agony of retrials” and increase public confidence in the jury system.

Garcetti, who is running for reelection on March 26, insisted Wednesday that his newfound support for a 10-2 verdict was not a campaign ploy. Nor, he said, did it have anything to do with the verdict in the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial or the clamor for reform of the criminal justice system that Simpson’s acquittal has produced.