HyperLoop555

In 1975, Norris Henderson went on trial for second-degree murder as a 19-year-old in New Orleans. He thought he was a free man when there were two holdouts on the jury. "Watched Perry Mason all my life," he says. "Okay, 10-2, I'm outta here." But he was mistaken. Louisiana has a split-jury system that only requires ten of twelve jurors to return a guilty verdict. "Sheriff put the handcuffs on me and took me to the back," Norris recalls. "I was like 'something ain't right.'" Henderson spent the next 27 years in prison until a judge released him. Now, he's leading a coalition to push for unanimous juries. Louisiana voters will decide the matter Tuesday when there's a constitutional amendment on the ballot to repeal the Jim Crow-era law that allows for split juries. "This is Jim Crow's last stand," Henderson says. The split-jury system is a vestige of Louisiana's 1898 constitutio