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After a long and arduous process to select jurors for the trial of 3 White men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery, a panel compiled of 11 white people, and one black person was selected.
The jury selection process took two and a half weeks and ended with prosecutors accusing defense attorneys of disproportionately striking qualified Black jurors.
Judge Timothy Walmsley openly agreed that the defense appeared to be discriminatory in selecting the jury but allowed the case to go forward.
“This court has found that there appears to be intentional discrimination,” Walmsley said on Wednesday.
For more than two hours, the court heard arguments about why the defense struck the potential jurors before the Judge ultimately denied the state’s motion and ruled there were valid reasons, beyond race, for why the black jurors were dismissed.
“One of the challenges that I think counsel recognized in this case is the racial overtones in the case. … This is sort of the continuation of a conversation that I think will continue for a long time, with respect to this case,” Judge Walmsley said, adding that in Georgia, “all the defense needs to do is provide that legitimate, nondiscriminatory, clear, reasonably specific and related reason,” for why they struck a juror and said the defense met that burden in this case.
