Greg and Travis McMichael got on their truck, chased down Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man, and killed him in the street with a shotgun—a public lynching caught on camera by their co-defendant, William "Roddie" Bryan. But the panel that decides whether this was murder will comprise almost entirely of white people in a community where 1 in 4 are black. Only a single black juror avoided being struck from the panel by the mens' defense.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley acknowledged that "intentional discrimination" by attorneys for the three white defendants charged in the death of the Black man appeared to have shaped jury selection. But he said Georgia law limited his authority to intervene. …
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that it is unconstitutional for attorneys during jury selection to strike potential jurors solely based on race or ethnicity. Laura Hogue, an attorney for Greg McMichael, insisted those jury panelists were cut for other reasons
I keep reading people who think it doesn't matter because "it's a clear-cut case" and conviction is inevitable. But that's not how this works at all. The only reason they were even charged—months after the killing—was because Bryant's video of the shooting was leaked to the media, humiliating prosecutors into action. Will the people who did everything possible to avoid charging the men now do everything possible to convict them?
