Ahmaud Arbery was chased down and murdered on a country road by three white men in a pickup truck. Will the perpetrators of this modern-day lynching go free?
Could we be staring down the barrel of a Jim Crow jury in 2021? Here are the facts.
Arbery was murdered in Glynn County, which is 27% Black. 11 Black jurors were part of the original pool of 65 juror, and only 1 Black juror ended up on the trial.
Is this a jury of peers?
Retired law enforcement officer on jury:
- Trained in the military and worked in law enforcement for 50 years
- Personally knows the police chief
- Met the defense attorney through his connections in the Republican Party.
- Is a proponent of citizen's arrests.
A Black woman cut from the jury said, "He wasn't given a fair chance... it was almost like a lynching to me."
Older white juror:
- Retired federal law enforcement officer with nearly three decades of experience that currently works as an instructor
- He saw the video on television and was not interested in learning more about the case
A Black woman cut from the jury said,"The whole case is about racism... They hunted him down and killed him like an animal."
White woman juror:
- Reads the far-right publication, the Epoch Times
- Is familiar with other jurors
- "it happened so long ago that I don’t remember what the actual facts are compared to the things that I’ve heard"
A Black man cut from the jury said, "when you chase and corner someone, he felt like he had no choice but to escape by any means."
When asked if the video of Arbery's murder left an impression on her, one white juror said, "not overtly."
"It was a horrible situation as everyone knows, but nothing is ever as it seems to be. I don’t think the video is the whole story."
A white woman juror said, "I’ve real mixed feelings about this whole case...I don’t know if we ever know what really happened. I just think there’s always two sides to everything."
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"Derek Chauvin had 26 incidents before George Floyd. He had kneeled on the neck of 7 people before he did this to the 8th person, George Floyd. He had killed 5 people before he killed George Floyd."
Derek Chauvin was involved in the killing of four individuals – five including George Floyd – and shot a 6th person in the abdomen.
Here are their names:
- Klevar Jacome
- Darwin Vivar
- Everett Vivar
- Wayne Reyes
Chauvin shot Ira Toles directly in the abdomen.
Derek Chauvin has 26 incidents of police misconduct (that have been reported). Prosecutors in his murder trial have sought to introduce 6 separate instances of Chauvin using excessive force by kneeling on people to restrain them, which would make seven including George Floyd.