The United States Supreme Court ruled in "Selman v. Louisiana", 428 U.S. 906, 96 S. Ct. 3214, 49 L. Ed. 2d 1212 (1976), that "the imposition and enforcement of the death penalty in aggravated rape cases under the statute at issue ... constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments." (By 1977 only three states imposed the death penalty for rape.) In "Coker v. Georgia" (decided June 29, 1977), the US Supreme Court overturned any use of capital punishment as the penalty for rape, ruling that it was "cruel and unusual punishment" under the 8th Amendment to the Constitution. By order of the court, inmates on Death Row for aggravated rape were to have their sentences judicially amended to the next level of severity; in Louisiana, convicted rapists on Death Row had their sentences commuted to a maximum of 20 years in prison. This ruling was made before Simmons' case was tried. In 1977 the Louisiana legislature amended the death penalty statute, C.Cr.P. 933. R.S. 14:42, by Act 343 of 1977. This law "took effect on September 9, 1977 and provided a new penalty, one other than death." It established a penalty of life for the crime of aggravated rape and imposed a 50-year sentence on those convicted of attempted aggravated rape. Simmons was tried before a jury of eleven white men and one black woman in July 1977, with counsel by a court-appointed attorney. One of the assistant DAs to Knoll was his wife, Jeannette Knoll. She was elected in 1982 as a state circuit court judge, and in 1996 to the State Supreme Court, from which she retired in 2016. Days before the Simmons trial, DA Eddie Knoll amended the charges against the defendant to "attempted aggravated rape." Simmons had not been indicted on these charges. Knoll did not explain to the jury why Simmons was being charged with two counts of "attempted aggravated rape", when the testimony they were hearing was based upon justifying the charges of two counts of aggravated rape. No physical evidence from the car was presented in the Simmons case to tie him to the alleged rapes. No physical evidence was presented to prove that the rapes had occurred. The case was based on testimony by the Sanders' twins and LaBorde. Simmons' defense presented several alibi eyewitnesses who said that Simmons was with them at a local bar the night of the rapes.