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