Waiver of Jury Unanimity: Some Doubts about Reasonable Doubt

Abstract

5 A similar distinction is made in Minnequa Cooperage v. Hendricks, 130 Ark. 264, 197 S.W. 280 (1917), where it was held that a statute providing for a three-fourths verdict'was unconstitutional though the parties "might have agreed that a less number than the whole might render a verdict."6 Various preliminary distinctions can be made at this point: The burdenof proof in criminal cases is greater than in civil cases; in civil cases life or liberty is not at stake and many more opportunities for compromise are present.7204