Still In Prison: A Call to Topple a Racist Law in Oregon and The People It Imprisons

CHALLENGE

Every juror’s voice is supposed to matter, but up until 2020, not in Louisiana and Oregon. In August, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that non-unanimous juries are unconstitutional and furthermore, that they are based in racist history. At the time of the case, only two states in the nation allowed juries to disregard the voices of up to two people for the purpose of silencing minority voices in order to convict whoever they wanted: Oregon and Louisiana.The problem: The Supreme Court decision only ruled that non-unanimous juries could no longer be used going forward. But what about the hundreds of people still in prison, and thousands more outside saddled by an unconstitutionally racist criminal conviction, that happened to be convicted prior to the Supreme Court case? According to the Supreme Court and Oregon state leaders: They were out of luck.

Solution

In partnership with Zealous, MediaTank Productions, and jailhouse lawyer, Calvin Duncan, with the support of a coalition of  local defenders, civil rights attorneys, and community advocates, Variant created a film and helped launch a campaign to make the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that non-unanimous jury convictions are unconstitutional apply retroactively to the hundreds still in prison based on this racist law. The campaign is made up of several short films–one primary film, one shorter version of that primary film, and then several shorter films focused on individuals who were impacted by the law.

OVERVIEW

Non-unanimous juries are a relic of a racist time in America. They only were used in some states, but they had the impact of silencing minority voices in making criminal convictions. In the Supreme Court ruling in Ramos v. Louisiana, the case that ultimately found non-unanimous juries unconstitutional. Because of this ruling,

Impact

The film and campaign helped build a local coalition of over 40 local organizations, engaged Human Rights Watch, the ACLU, and Color of Change as national partners, generated significant local and national press, formed an alliance with Chelsea Clinton, and supported writing and placement of a powerful oped in USA Today by a man who was convicted by a nonunanimous jury and has not received retroactive justice. And finally, in December 2022, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that the hundreds of people still incarcerated because of the racist law would have their convictions vacated.

To learn more about the issue and how to take action, visit: stillinprison.org

Variant Strategies co-directed this film with MediaTank for Zealous.