2021-11-05 18:39:28
Only one Black juror, along with 11 white jurors, has been selected to hear the murder trial of three white men who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old Black man who was jogging through the suburbs of Brunswick, Georgia. The defendants — Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, as well as their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan — claim they were attempting a citizen’s arrest when they chased and killed Arbery. Prosecutors asked Judge Timothy Walmsley to reinstate eight Black potential jurors, arguing defense lawyers struck them because of their race. The judge declined to change the jury’s racial makeup before the start of the trial Friday. We speak to attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Arbery family. “There was intentional discrimination,” he says. “I don’t know how you can conclude anything else.”
Democracy Now! speaks with Crump about the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the white teenager who faces seven charges, including homicide, for fatally shooting two men and wounding a third amid racial justice protests last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Crump represents Jacob Blake, the Black man whose shooting by police sparked the protests.
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