The End of Nonunanimous Verdicts and the Persistence of Precedent
In a criminal case in England in 1367, one of the twelve jurors said he’d rather die in prison than vote to convict. As a result, the judge in the case refused to accept an 11-to-1 guilty verdict, and the principle of unanimity was born. It became a vital right of criminal defendants that was protected by the common law. By the time James Madison drafted and the states ratified the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution in 1791, which guaranteed the right of criminal defendant

