The judge found “deliberate discrimination” in the selection of the Arbery jury, but allowed the trial to continue with 1 black member

The judge found “deliberate discrimination” in the selection of the Arbery jury, but allowed the trial to continue with 1 black member

The jury, consisting of 11 white members and one black member, was selected according to a two and a half weeks of the selection process which ended with prosecutors accusing defense attorneys of disproportionately striking qualified black jurors and basing some of their strikes on race.

Judge Timothy Walmsley said the defense seemed discriminatory in choosing the jury, but that the case could continue.

“This court found that there appears to be intentional discrimination,” Walmsley said Wednesday.

The court listened for more than two hours to arguments as to why the defense hit potential jurors before Walmsley ultimately rejected the state’s motion and ruled that there were good reasons other than race as to why the jurors were dismissed.

“One of the challenges that I think the lawyer has acknowledged in this case is the racial connotation in the case. … It’s kind of a continuation of the conversation that I think will continue for a long time on this case,” he said. the judge said, but added that in Georgia, “all the defense has to do is provide that legitimate, non-discriminatory, clear, reasonably specific and related reason,” why they hit the juror and said the defense has met that burden.

Of the total of 16 jurors selected – including four substitutes – five are men and 11 women, the association’s rapporteur in the courtroom reported.

Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother, said when she left court on Wednesday that she was “shocked” because there was only one black juror.

“I mean, it was devastating,” she said.

Jurors must decide whether Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael, along with neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. they are guilty of malice and murder. They pleaded guilty. Defendants also face charges of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and the felony of attempted false imprisonment.

Lee Merritt, an attorney for Arbery’s family, wrote on Twitter about the number of potential black jurors left, saying in a post, “Only one in 16 potential jurors is African American.”

Jason Sheffield, a lawyer for Travis McMichael, described the selection process as “exhaustive”, but said he was pleased with the outcome and said the selected jurors would be fair.

“We are very happy to be able to elect 16 members of this community now,” Sheffield said as he left the court. “Where this community can now decide the unresolved issues of this indictment, and we truly believe they will do so fairly and in accordance with what we all understand to be justice.”

The selection process was long

Arbery kills triggered national outrage after a video of his shooting was made public. The 25-year-old Negro was on the run in Brunswick on February 23, 2020, when he was fatally shot.
The McMichaels said Arbery is carrying out the arrest of a citizen suspected of burglary and that Travis McMichael shot him with a rifle in self-defense. Bryan, who made the video, hit Arbery with his truck after joining the McMichaels in the hunt for Arbery, an agent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation testified.

It wasn’t until a footage of the shooting surfaced that the men were arrested.

Finding people to sit in the panel that will deliver the verdicts was a demanding and lengthy process that seemed to be the judge himself they become disappointed with the last month.
From about 1000 people were invited less than half of them were selected as part of the jury selection.
There was no official reason for the low turnout, but among those who came, many said they had already formed strong opinions on the matter, knew the defendants, or were afraid to sit down, pointing to the possible consequences the outcome of the case could have for the Glynn County community.

“I think it would be naive to think that there can be no consequences in the real world,” one woman told lawyers last month in the early days of the selection process.

The jury will meet just before the recitals. The judge ordered the jurors to report Friday morning at 9 p.m.

Too few men ‘Bubba’, the advocate said

Proponents have previously expressed concern not only about how many people did not show up, but also who is missing among those who did.

“Southern-born white men over the age of 40 without a four-year college degree, sometimes euphemistically known as‘ Bubba ’or‘ Joe Six Pack ’, appear to be significantly under-represented,” advocate Kevin Gough, who represents Bryan, said. , he told the court on Friday.

“Without being stereotypical in any way, I think in this case the real question is whether this demographic group is under-represented in this group of juries,” Gough added. “And if it is, then we have a problem with it.”

Sheffield, Travis McMichael’s lawyer, mentioned demographics again this week, stressing that low turnout during the jury selection process means the association did not “fairly reflect the defendant in this case, where the defendant can’t look over in the courtroom and see people who they are in a similar position to themselves. “

However, the jury should only represent race and gender, not the socioeconomic background, legal analyst CNN Page Pate said. Pate said there is usually a diverse economic background among those invited.

“Participating in a jury is important, but only so much as to establish a diversity of races and perhaps gender, not a‘ Bubba ’background, whatever it is,” Pate said. “I represented the doctors who went to trial. Was my jury made up of a crowd of doctors? Of course not.”

Glynn County, home to more than 85,000 people, is about 70% white and 27% black, according to 2019 data. U.S. Census Bureau.

“Even if there was no‘ Bubbas ’until lawyers remove people just because of race, there really isn’t a problem,” Pate said. “You have no legal right to a group of juries rich in ‘Bubba.'”

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