Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-5924_n6io.pdf
Page Number: 57.0

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

5 

THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment 

ratification.  State courts, for example, continued to inter-
pret the phrase “trial by jury” to require unanimity in fel-
ony guilty verdicts.  The New Hampshire Superior Court of
Judicature expounded on the point: 

“The terms ‘jury,’ and ‘trial by jury,’ are, and for ages
have been well known in the language of the law.  They
were used at the adoption of the constitution, and al-
ways,  it  is  believed,  before  that  time,  and  almost  al-
ways since, in a single sense.

“A jury for the trial of a cause . . . must return their 

unanimous verdict upon the issue submitted to them. 
“All the books of the law describe a trial jury substan-
tially as we have stated it.  And a ‘trial by jury’ is a trial 
by such a body, so constituted and conducted.  So far as 
our knowledge extends, these expressions were used at 
the adoption of the constitution and always before, in
these senses alone by all classes of writers and speak-
ers.”  Opinion of Justices, 41 N. H. 550, 551–552 (1860). 

Other state courts held the same view.  The Missouri Su-
preme Court in 1860 called unanimity one of the “essential 
requisites in a jury trial,” Vaughn v. Scade, 30 Mo. 600, 603, 
and the Ohio Supreme Court in 1853 called it one of “the 
essential and distinguishing features of the trial by jury, as 
known  at  common  law,  and  generally,  if  not  universally,
adopted in this country,” Work v. State, 2 Ohio St. 296, 306. 
Treatises  from  the  Reconstruction  era  likewise  adopted 
this  position.    A  leading  work  on  criminal  procedure  ex-
plained that if a “statute authorizes [a jury] to find a verdict 
upon anything short of . . . unanimous consent,” it “is void.” 
1  J.  Bishop,  Criminal  Procedure  §761,  p.  532  (1866).  A 
widely  read  treatise  on  constitutional  law  reiterated  that
“ ‘by  a  jury’  is  generally  understood  to  mean”  a  body  that
“must unanimously concur in the guilt of the accused before 
a conviction can be had.”  G. Paschal, The Constitution of 
the United States 210 (1876) (capitalization omitted).  And