Constitutional Accountability Center Constitutional Accountability Center

Criminal Law

Ensuring that our criminal justice system treats all in America with fairness, dignity, and equality
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Alcatraz Prison | miss_millions, Flickr

Summary

CAC works to ensure that all who interact with the criminal justice system enjoy the rights to which they are entitled and are treated with the dignity and equality promised to them by the Constitution.

Criminal Justice in Brief

Courtroom | Clyde Robinson, Flickr

On issues from policing and qualified immunity to cash bail, CAC works to redeem the promises of our Constitution — amended in the wake of the Civil War and the scourge of chattel slavery — that the law will be enforced equally for all in America.

Featured Case

Criminal Law November 7, 2022

Khorrami v. Arizona

Despite a consensus stretching back hundreds of years that a “jury” consists of twelve people, in 1970 the Supreme Court held in Williams v. Florida that juries as small as six are constitutionally permissible under the Sixth Amendment. After being convicted by an eight-person jury in Arizona state court, Ramin Khorrami alleged that a jury of that size violated his Sixth Amendment jury trial right, which he argues ensures the right to a verdict by a jury of no fewer than twelve. Khorrami argued, among other things, that Williams is inconsistent with the 2020 case Ramos v. Louisiana, in which the Supreme Court overturned its...

Case Timeline

Current
  • Supreme Court denies petition for writ of certiorari
  • CAC files amicus curiae brief

Related Issue Areas

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