Supreme Court declines to decide whether 12-person juries should be required for state felony cases

The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear a number of cases questioning whether state court juries must have a dozen members when they are weighing serious criminal charges.

The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear a number of cases questioning whether state court juries must have a dozen members when they are weighing serious criminal charges. A series of appeals challenging Florida’s use of six-member juries has been pending at the Supreme Court for months. Six states — Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts and Utah — allow six- or eight-member juries to decide felony cases. The criminal defendants asserted that the practice violates the 6th Amendment. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a dissent from the decision to deny the cases. “If there are not yet four votes on this court to take up the question,” Gorsuch wrote, “I can only hope someday there will be.” “In the meantime,” Gorsuch wrote, “nothing prevents the people of Florida and other affected states from revising their jury practices to ensure no government in this country may send a person to prison without the unanimous assent of 12 of his peers.”