Document Type
Article
Abstract
Currently, the State of Arkansas curiously stands alone in opposition to the rest of the nation when it comes to honoring the individual’s right to a unanimous verdict in a criminal trial. While never explicitly adopted by the Arkansas Supreme Court, Arkansas law has passively permitted two illegitimate practices to develop. First, prosecutors are permitted to submit evidence of multiple, separate acts to sustain a single criminal charge. Second, jurors are permitted to disregard factual disagreements and render patchwork verdicts, especially in the context of sex crime cases.
Arkansas practice and custom currently does not protect against a conviction based on sincere factual divergence amongst jurors. Such verdicts undermine the principle that the prosecution has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed a crime. Such verdicts are patently un-constitutional as violative of the right to a unanimous verdict, yet this practice has somehow become commonplace in Arkansas.
This Article offers a proposed model jury instruction designed to remedy this constitutional error and protect the right to a unanimous verdict in Arkansas.
Recommended Citation
Bryan Altman,
Compromised Guilt: Systemic Denial of the Right to a Unanimous Verdict in Arkansas,
47 U. Ark. Little Rock L. Rev. 357
(2025).
Available at: https://lawrepository.ualr.edu/lawreview/vol47/iss3/6