Jury Decision Consistent With Past Predominantly White Jury Verdicts:The Race of the Victim Matters Much
- Details
- Category: Justice
- Published: Sunday, 14 July 2013 04:02
Yesterday I was taken aback by the comments of Sheriff Don Eslinger, the Seminole County Sheriff. Shortly after the jury began deliberating Sheriff Eslinger convened a news conference to announce that he would not tolerate lawlessness after the verdict is announced. It is not what he said, but how he said it. His tone was accusatory and threatening and in my view based upon negative presumptions about the African American community.
More importantly, his comments suggests that he has some inside perspective that there will be a not guilty verdict. No one knew what the jury would do but statistically, the odds are high that Zimmerman would not be convicted of Second Degree Murder. There was always a better than fair chance that Zimmerman would be acquitted. This was do largely to the racial composition of the jury. It has amazed me to hear some say that this case is not about race. I agree that it should not be about race and that race has no proper place in the criminal justice system. Withstanding that, this case has always been about race. Race played a role, from Zimmerman’s initial profiling of Trayvon Martin to Marc Omara’s closing argument intimation during closing argument that Zimmerman was justified in racially profiling Trayvon Martin. Sheriff Eslinger knows all of this and that is why he made the statement that he did.
If I could have a brief conversation with Sheriff Eslinger I would remind the honorable sheriff that Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012. It has
been exactly 503 days since that day. The African American community has waited patiently, peacefully and lawfully for justice since then. We have demanded that the criminal justice system do its job when it was clearly reluctant to do so. The criminal justice system’s non response to the killing of Trayvon Martin struck a raw nerve with the African American community, with respect to a lessor value that is consistently placed upon the lives of our sons and daughters, but especially our sons. The marching, the picketing and the protesting that preceded the criminal prosecution of George Zimmerman was an expression of maturated frustration. Maturated frustration occurs when a long oppressed people resolve within themselves that they will not tolerate it anymore. It is not an expression of some kind of animalistic savagery as some might suppose. Quite to the contrary, its the manifestation of the irrepressible human spirit which demands to be treated as an equal to all other human beings.
If I could talk further to the honorable sheriff I would also tell him that the African American community cannot and will not sit quite in the face of egregious injustice. The words of Jeremiah the prophet captures the sentiment best, it is like fire shut up in our bones. Therefore it is not just our First Amendment right to speak out, but it is our moral duty to speak out. Ella Baker’s song speaks directly to the feelings of the African American community. The words to the song say, “We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes, we who believe in freedom cannot not rest until it comes. Until the killing of a Black man, a Black mother’s son is as important as the killing of a White man, a White mother’s son.” The song is a civil rights era song but it is relevant to what is at issue in the Trayvon Martin murder case.
This jury followed the pattern and practice of past southern white juries by refusing to convict a non African American of killing an African American male. That is why Defense attorney Marc Omara and his very capable partner, Don West, worked very deliberately, and more adeptly than the State, to put more White persons on the jury than any other race. If the Defendant was an African American these dynamics would almost certainly guaranty a conviction. But, as two recent studies have shown, the racial composition of the jury matters greatly. A 2010 study conducted by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), revealed that prosecutors throughout the south manipulate the jury selection process to keep African Americans from serving on the jury when the Defendant is African American because they are aware of that innate prejudices and biases influence jury verdicts.
In the Trayvon Martin murder trial the dynamics were upside down in the sense that the prosecutor actually tried to get people of color on the jury and he attempted to block four White women from serving on the jury. Marc Omara was successful in his attempt to block two African Americans from serving on the jury. But, the State failed in its attempt to keep four White women from serving on the jury. The dye was substantially cast at that point. A 2012 Duke University study and an Amnesty International study both revealed something that most defense attorneys know from first hand experience. The race of the victim matters greatly. Generally, the State will charge the Defendant with a lower crime and seek a lesser punishment if the victim is an African American. Similarly, predominantly White jurors tend to convict less often when the victim of a crime is an African American.
Another way of saying this is that if Trayvon Martin had murdered George Zimmerman under the same circumstances the State would have likely charged him with First Degree Murder and it would have likely sought the death penalty. That is a high probability. However, my honest thought, based upon my experience working for a law enforcement agency for several years and serving as a civil rights lawyer, is that if the tables were turned there would not have been a trial, because when Sanford Police arrived on the scene and saw a dead White man lying on the ground and a Black male standing there still armed with a gun they would have shot him and killed him on the scene and there would not have been much of a public uproar about it. The community would have assumed that the officers acted reasonably. They would have also assumed that Trayvon menaced the officers in some fashion. The community would have assumed this about Trayvon because that is the prevailing presumption that attaches to all African American males, African Americans are prone to committing acts of violence.
What do you think?