Friday, June 21, 2013

Zimmerman Gets an All-Female Jury - No Blacks

Attorney Don West, left, and jury consultant Robert Hirschhorn, right, stand with George Zimmerman as potential jurors enter the courtroom for Zimmerman's trial in Seminole circuit court in Sanford, Fla., Thursday, June 20, 2013. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Gary Green, Pool)

Yahoo News

A jury of six women was picked Thursday to decide the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch volunteer who says he fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in self-defense.

Prosecutors have said Zimmerman, 29, racially profiled the 17-year-old Martin as he walked back from a convenience store on a rainy night in February 2012 wearing a dark hooded shirt.

Race and ethnicity have played a prominent role in the case and even clouded jury selection. While the court did not release the racial makeup of the jury, the panel appeared to reporters covering jury selection to be made up of five white women and a sixth who may be Hispanic.

Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic.

After Thursday's hearing, Zimmerman's attorney Mark O'Mara was asked what he would say to people concerned there were no black jurors.

"People can look at it and have this response — that there's no blacks on the jury, or no this or no that, or no men on the jury," he said. "Tell me that we did something wrong in the process and I'll agree with you."

3 comments:

  1. I'm sure that soon everyone who is an expert will have plenty to say about what's right or wrong about the jury. How they ended up with this jury was pretty much in control of the two sides. Going to be an interesting ride.

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  2. If we believe in the idea of being tried by a jury of one's peers, then any American citizen in good standing is the peer of anyone else. But if you insist on an idea that everyone of a particular group will think alike, you must blame the prosecution here as well.

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  3. Zimmerman Gets an All-Female Jury - No Blacks

    No racial obsession here, eh, Mikeb?

    ReplyDelete