Three white men are charged for murder of 25- year-old Black man Ahmaud Arbery. As the case is continuing the final jury selection has been made and only one black juror is included.
In February 2020, Arbery was jogging in his neighborhood when three men thought he was responsible for break ins in the area. However, police said there weren't any files on record regarding the alleged break ins. The men decided to take matters into their own hands and take the life of Arbery and called it self defense.
The arrest of those men were made after a video of the incident circulated on social media.
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Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William Bryan are facing nine charges, including murder and aggravated assualt. All three are pleading not guilty to said charges.
“This court has found that there appears to be intentional discrimination," Judge Timothy Walmsley said in court.
After two and a half weeks, the jury was selected for the case. This jury includes 11 white jurors and one Black juror. The court then proceeded to hear arguments about why Wamsley denied the state’s notion and ruled the jury selection wasn’t racially biased and there were valid reasons for the selection
This case has received national and global attention in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement. Many believe these three men were racially motivated to take Arbery’s life, and some have faith that the jury selection will do the right thing.
Rozonda Thomas, also known as Chilli from the female group TLC,said she is optimistic justice will be served despite the lack of diversity in the jury selection.
“I look at it like this, we have to believe that there are kind, good hearted people no matter what color they are,” Chilli said in an interview with TMZ. “Just because it’s not the same skin color doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t be fair because to me it’s pretty obvious what happened.”
Others believe systematic racism will win in this case just as it has always been.
IU junior, Shanya Unseld, said she believes the case is going to favor the three white men because of the jury.
“We seen it time and time again that the white man has always won when it comes to cases like this,” she said. “I want to believe that there are good hearted people in this world and that the case would be fair but we have to look at cases like Breonna Taylor and Trayvon Martin. How they didn’t get the justice they deserved and were killed because of the color of their skin.”
The sixth amendment of the U.S. Constitution grants all defendants the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. Impartial meaning unbiased and nondiscriminatory. Seeing a jury with mainly white jurors on a case like Arbery’s we can see where the impartial jury is questioned.
Having diversity in the jury allows all trials to be fair. People of different economic statutes and races allow different experiences and attitudes than can be applied to the decision of the case.
Ahmaud Arbery’s case is still ongoing, and a verdict has yet been made.
