Attorney Ben Crump Responds To The Selection Of One Black Juror In Trial For The Death Of Ahmaud Arbery
After two weeks, the jury has been selected for the trial of the three men involved in the death of Ahmaud Arbery. Out of hundreds of potential jurors, the jury of 12 and four alternates, only includes one Black man.
According to USA Today, after the jury was selected on Nov. 3, Judge Timothy Walmsley said,
"This court has found that there appears to be intentional discrimination.”
He also added that in the state of Georgia "all the defense needs to do is provide that legitimate, nondiscriminatory, clear, reasonably specific and related reason.” Walmsley believed the defense met that burden and will not intervene, despite prosecutors requesting for eight Black jurors to be reinstated.
The single Black man and the 11 white jurors will be sworn in on Friday.
“After being hunted down, cornered, and shot for being a Black man in a white Georgia neighborhood, Ahmaud Arbery is again denied justice,” Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, said in a statement. “His killers’ fate will be decided by a nearly all-white jury after defense attorneys denied eight potential Black jurors. Even the judge acknowledged ‘there appears to be intentional discrimination in the panel.’ “
“A jury should reflect the community,” he continued. “Brunswick is 55 percent Black, so it’s outrageous that Black jurors were intentionally excluded to create such an imbalanced jury in a cynical effort to help these cold-blooded killers escape justice.”
While Arbery was killed in Brunswick, the trial is being held in Glynn County, Georgia, which is 26% Black and 69% white, according to the US Census Bureau.
Prosecutors say on February 23, 2020, Greg and Travis McMichael, a white father and son, armed themselves and pursued Arbery, 25, in a pickup truck after seeing him running in their neighborhood outside of Brunswick, Ga.
Following behind, neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan recorded the incident, taking cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range with a shotgun. The pair said they believed Arbery was a burglar.
Immediately following the shooting, the McMichaels and Bryan remained free and were not charged until the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case. In May 2020, all three were charged with murder. Additionally, all three men have been indicted on federal hate crime and attempted kidnapping charges.
