How a Prosecutor Addressed a Mostly White Jury and Won a Conviction in the Arbery Case

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The lawyer was from out of town, a prosecutor who had spent the bulk of her career in a large, liberal city, and she had been brought in to try the biggest case of her career: the murder of a Black man on a sunny afternoon by three white men just outside a small city pinned to the South Georgia coastline.

Despite the evidence of racism she had at her disposal, Linda Dunikoski, the prosecutor, stunned some legal observers by largely avoiding race during the trial, choosing instead to hew closely to the details of how the three men had chased the Black man, Ahmaud Arbery, through their neighborhood.

The risks went beyond her career and a single trial. Failure to convict in a case that many saw as an obvious act of racial violence would reverberate well outside Glynn County, Ga. For some, it would be a referendum on a country that appeared to have made tentative steps last summer toward confronting racism, only to devolve into deeper divisions.

On Wednesday, Ms. Dunikoski’s strategy was vindicated when the jury found the three men guilty of murder and other charges after deliberating for roughly a day. The convicted men — Gregory McMichael, 65; his son Travis McMichael, 35; and their neighbor William Bryan, 52 — are now facing life sentences in prison. They are also facing trial in February on separate federal hate-crime charges.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/how-a-prosecutor-addressed-a-mostly-white-jury-and-won-a-conviction-in-the-arbery-case/ar-AAR8wOm

[question everything]

1. I don't have legal knowledge, but sticking to the fact that he ran away meant

there was no reason to “Defend.”

I hope that she is bound for a great career.

[uponit7771]

3. +1, she established that racist truck drivers were the OFFENDERS first

[yardwork]

2. That was a smart strategy.

Southerners don't like to be accused of racism - whatever the facts - so her strategy allowed them to find the defendants guilty without feeling defensive. She avoided bringing in what would have been emotionally-laden baggage.

Very smart strategy.

[soryang]

4. she won in jury selection

that's usually the case. even though she got an almost all white jury, she was left with nine women and two white men on the jury with one black man. Over the years, I've met a lot of people from this region. So in effect she almost eliminated the cowboys on the jury she might have to deal with, she had 3/4 women. My experience has been that that the women in this area aren't half as bigoted (or stupid) as the men. I'm also wondering about their age. The younger the better. I think this is typically what happens in jury selection with black jurors being dismissed on one pretext or peremptories, by the other side, yet she got the jury that was as advantageous as possible in spite of that handicap.

Of course, you can still botch the case after getting a good jury, sounds like she understood her jury well and made a great presentation in court.