The right to a jury of peers is enshrined in U.S. law, yet the selection process has historically favored white jurors, systematically excluding black individuals through various legal and procedural barriers. In the context of the recent trial of Ahmaud Arbery's murderers (2021), the jury selection process (voir dire) highlighted significant racial disparities, with a jury composed of eleven white jurors and one black juror, despite a local population that is 27% black (or identifies as...
As explained in a previous entry, Critical Race Theory (CRT), which examines the intersection of race, law, and power posits that racism is embedded in legal systems and policies, often resulting in the marginalization of racialized groups. This related entry examines citizen's arrest laws in the US and the way they can perpetuate systemic racism by allowing individuals to act on racial biases without accountability. The historical context of these laws (originating from English common law but...