The jury in the #AhmaudArbery murder trial never heard evidence of alleged racist motives for the killing. During testimony, prosecutors never mentioned:
▪️ Confederate flag on killers' truck
▪️ 1 killer using racist slur as Arbery lay dying
Closing arguments are set for Monday.
Legal experts say prosecutors in the #AhmaudArbery trial may not have mentioned racial animus in testimony because of the jury's racial makeup.
▪️ 11/12 jurors are white (county is 27% Black)
▪️ Judge admitted defense may have used "intentional discrimination" in jury selection
These are the charges 3 white men face for chasing and killing #AhmaudArbery:
▪️ Malice murder: up to life in prison
▪️ Felony murder: up to life in prison
▪️ 2x Aggravated assault: up to 20 yrs each
▪️ False imprisonment: up to 10 yrs
▪️ Attempt to commit felony: up to 5 yrs
#AhmaudArbery's killers used a Civil War-era "citizen's arrest" law once used to justify slave patrols to defend chasing and killing him.
Police testified:
▪️ Killers were not deputized
▪️ No proof Arbery stole anything
▪️ Would have gotten a trespass warning if not killed
A lawyer for #AhmaudArbery's killers requested a mistrial on Monday, claiming there were armed protesters outside. (Open carry is legal in Georgia.)
Kevin Gough has requested a mistrial 7 times, previously over the presence of "Black pastors" and because Arbery's mother cried.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
The International Court of Justice has begun the hearing for South Africa’s case against Israel. In it, South Africa accuses Israel of eight different acts of genocide.
Here’s what they are 🧵
1 - Killing Palestinians
Israeli forces have killed at least 23,708 Palestinians since Oct. 7. 8,000 more Palestinians are missing.
2 - Causing serious bodily and mental harm
Over 59,410 Palestinians have been injured. More than 1,000 children have lost limbs.
The U.S. launched a racist eugenics program in Puerto Rico in the 1930s — sterilizing about one third of Puerto Rican women by 1976, many forced or coerced.
It was just one chapter of U.S. colonial eugenics programs and medical experiments targeting women of color. 🧵(1/8)
The U.S. approved forced sterilization in Puerto Rico in 1937 for what it called "overpopulation."
U.S. land theft and exploitation plunged the island into poverty. Health workers coerced people seeking contraception — mostly targeting Black and brown women — into sterilization.
U.S. occupiers transformed Puerto Rico's economy to focus on sugar — for U.S. interests — after invading in 1898.
70% of Puerto Ricans were made landless by 1925. By the 1930s:
▪️ 1 in 3 people unemployed
▪️ 80% of land owned by 2% of population, mostly white
BREAKING: A 6.3 earthquake hit the Turkey-Syria border, two weeks after the devastating earthquake.
No new casualties were immediately reported but witnesses report damage. Turkey has reported over 6,000 aftershocks since the February 6 earthquake killed over 46,000 people.
The Feb. 6 earthquake made over 1 million homeless in Turkey alone:
▪️ over 20,000 buildings collapsed
▪️ over 105,000 buildings need demolition
The government has been criticized for lax regulations. An ex-minister says that as of 2018, half of all buildings broke regulation.
Over 46,000 people in Turkey and Syria were killed by the February 6 earthquake.
Many are missing, but there is no official count.
The UN says:
▪️ Up to 5 million made homeless in Syria, many are already displaced
▪️ 350,000+ pregnant women need access to shelter, medical care
The UK and the U.S. forcibly displaced an entire Indigenous population from the Chagos Islands to build a military base.
Chagossians were never paid reparations or significant compensation. A new @hrw report accuses both countries of crimes against humanity. 🧵
The Chagos Islands are the UK's last African colony.
Most inhabitants were descendants of African and South Asian people enslaved or indentured to work on coconut plantations.
The UK evicted them in the 1960s to build a U.S. base in exchange for discounts on nuclear weapons.
Up to 2,000 Chagossians were forcibly displaced from their homes from 1965-1973.
The UK:
▪️ blocked supplies of food and medical care to starve the population out
▪️ blocked people returning if they traveled
▪️ intimidated residents by shooting or poisoning over 1,000 pet dogs