EXPLAINER: How the Arbery trial got a nearly all-white jury

By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press

The long-standing practice of allowing attorneys to dismiss prospective jurors without giving a reason has come under intense criticism. That’s after a nearly all-white jury was picked to decide whether three white men are guilty of murder for shooting and killing Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was jogging though a neighborhood in Georgia. The selection of 11 white jurors and one Black man to decide the fate of the three defendants has drawn complaints from prosecutors and the victim’s family that jury selection process was blatantly unfair. Now, the system of “peremptory challenges,” is coming under growing scrutiny in many courtrooms, and change is slowly coming.