11 white jurors, 1 Black man seated in Arbery murder trial – By Shaddi Abusaid & Bill Rankin (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)/ Nov 3 2021
BRUNSWICK – Sparks flew during the final phase of jury selection in the Ahmaud Arbery case Wednesday when prosecutors accused defense attorneys of eliminating a disproportionate number of jurors because of their race.
In the end, just one Black man made it onto the jury of 12. All the others are white. The panel of 16, which includes 12 trial jurors and four alternates, consists of four men and 12 women.
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski said the attorneys representing Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan used their allotted strikes to eliminate 11 of 12 prospective Black jurors from the qualified panel, leaving a mostly white jury to decide the high-profile case.
Opening statements are expected to begin Friday morning in the shooting death that has galvanized many in this community of 85,000 and drawn demonstrators from across the U.S. to the coastal Georgia town. Arbery was Black. The McMichaels and Bryan are white.
