US EditionA split jury and a lie sent him to prison. Now he’s working to change Louisiana’s law
- In 1999, a young Black man aged 20 was found guilty of armed robbery by a jury vote of 10 to 2 in Louisiana and received a prison sentence totaling 99 years.
- His conviction resulted from Bobby Gumpright's fabricated story, told to conceal his drug addiction, claiming that a Black individual had forcibly taken his money while armed.
- The practice of allowing convictions despite one or two jurors dissenting was ultimately invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court due to its roots in discriminatory Jim Crow-era laws, yet thousands of individuals remain imprisoned under previous rulings.
- Hudson served 22 years, missing family milestones, and now advocates alongside Gumpright, who has been sober four years, for legislation allowing inmates convicted by split juries to seek retrials.
- Their joint effort reflects a broader push to rectify injustices rooted in nonunanimous jury laws and restore constitutional fairness to Louisiana’s criminal justice system.
43 Articles
43 Articles
A split jury and a lie sent him to prison. Now he's working to change Louisiana's law
As 18-year-old Bobby Gumpright rode his bike home from his bartending job in New Orleans in 1999, he began to concoct a story about why he didn't have any money. In the throes of addiction and not wanting to admit he had spent his paycheck on drugs, Gumpright lied to his father and said a Black man had robbed him at gunpoint.
Associated Press News
A split jury and a lie sent him to prison. Now he’s working to change Louisiana’s law
Bobby Gumpright was in the throws of addiction 25 years ago when he fabricated a story that he had been robbed at gunpoint by a Black man.
The Advocate
shreveportbossieradvocate.comLouisiana convicted them with nonunanimous juries. Should they get a retrial?
The U.S. Supreme Court declared split-jury verdicts unconstitutional in 2020, yet there are still hundreds of people behind bars in Louisiana whose convictions rest on the votes of 10 or 11 out of 12 jurors.
A Divided Jury and Deception Led to His Imprisonment; Now He Aims to Reform Louisiana’s Law
Legislative Change Sought After Decades of Injustice in Louisiana BATON ROUGE, La. — Bobby Gumpright, at just 18 years old in 1999, fabricated a story to explain his financial woes, which spiraled into a wrongful conviction that shook lives in Louisiana. Claiming he was robbed at gunpoint, Gumpright’s lie led to the arrest of Jermaine Hudson, a 20-year-old Black man whose life would be drastically altered. Hudson, who had been pulled over during…
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