Justice system fails on Arbery murder trial jury
The racial makeup of the jury hearing the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial is, at best, suspect.
In a county where the population is 25% African American, only 1 of the 12 jurors is Black. Review the jury selection process, and you'll find defense attorneys used peremptory challenges to keep eight Blacks off the jury. Read media coverage, and you'll notice the trial judge, Savannah's own Timothy Walmsley, stated there "appears to be intentional discrimination."
Yet the jury was seated and the trial has moved forward. Opening arguments are done and the prosecution is presenting its case.
How did this happen?
Local resident Lloyd Johnson, a retired prosecutor, unpacked the jury selection process in an op-ed published online Monday and in Tuesday's print edition. Johnson blames the absence of Black jurors on the practice of peremptory challenges, which allow attorneys to bar potential jurors from serving almost at will.
Johnson calls for abolishing peremptory challenges. He argues that If attorneys, be they for the defense or the prosecution, have an issue with a potential juror, they should make their case to the judge and he or she should have the power to retain or strike a juror.
Johnson makes a good case. Having only one Black juror means that once the case goes to the jury for a verdict there will be only one person in the jury room who can possibly relate to the race-related fear Arbery felt in the moment he decided to fight for his life.
Remember what one of the defendants, Greg McMichael, said on the 911 call that day: "There's a Black man running down the street." Only one juror will understand what it is like to be perceived as a threat simply because of the color of one's skin.
That's not to say a largely white jury is less likely to return a guilty verdict. But if the point of a jury trial is to assemble a panel that reflects the community in which the victim and the defendants live, the Arbery case has fallen short.
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— Written by Opinion Editor Adam Van Brimmer. Read more posts like this in the Savannah Town Square Facebook group.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Justice system fails on Arbery murder trial jury
