The Jury Selection Process Is Rigged in Favor of White Supremacy

The full version of this article appears in Truthout

On November 24, 12 carefully selected jurors in Brunswick, Georgia, convicted three men accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery as he jogged through their neighborhood. The men, who are all white, claimed they shot and killed the Black and unarmed Arbery in self-defense.

This verdict arrives despite efforts to tip the scales of justice in the murderers’ favor. Eleven of the 12 jurors were white, and that racial composition was no accident. During jury selection, the defense dismissed 11 of 12 potential Black jurors. When the prosecution challenged these dismissals, Judge Timothy Walmsley acknowledged that they were likely rooted in racism but refused to do anything about it.

“The jury should represent the community,” says Stephen Bright, a lawyer and professor at Yale University. “And a community that’s 27 percent African American should have more than one Black person on the jury.”

Read more at Truthout