Like many of you I followed the trial in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. Just as the Rev. Al Sharpton said, I thought the trial was historical and could change perceptions of how to deal with race in America.
Maybe even in higher ed.
Think of what happened. Three white defendants, one a former cop, another former military, another a diligent neighbor, accused of murdering an unarmed Black man in the Deep South. The jury is nearly all-white (11 of 12), with defense attorneys working hard to dismiss all but one potential Black juror. That made it 91 percent white in a county that is nearly 30 percent Black. It wasn’t reflective of the community’s real diversity.
And the jury convicted the three white defendants. What were the odds of unanimous convictions for felony murder for all three? I saw the trial on TV, and I thought not knowing the jury, it was at best a coinflip.
Emil Guillermo
The difference maker? The prosecutor Linda Dunikoski.
She was criticized for not mentioning race enough, for not calling the alleged crime what it was—the lynching of an innocent, unarmed Black man in America.
