So the verdict in the Oscar Grant trial? To no one's surprise, Johannes Mehserle was found guilty of...Involuntary Manslaughter! Now indeed, it could be valid that Mehserle intended to get his taser instead of his gun (even a friend of Grant's testified that the officer claimed he was intending to use his taser beforehand). With that being said, a couple of things still stand out. From the article itself:

"Prosecutors in Los Angeles have not won a murder conviction in a police shooting case since 1983."

In addition, as I had mentioned earlier, there were ZERO Black jurors. Last I checked, there are more than ZERO Blacks in Los Angeles County (quite a few, in fact).

Now I know that laws vary based on jurisdiction, but this guy's going to get similar time as Plaxico Burress (granted, Plax did plead guilty). At least Mehserle apologized, so everything's ok, right?

There's always the lifetime of guilt he'll have, but...getting off reasonably easy for killing a Black guy: a tragic reason why...America is Racist!

More Courtroom Racism

Meet Curtis Flowers. He's been tried six times for murder (That's possible??? I guess so, if you're Black and in Mississippi). As referenced in the link, He was convicted twice before (in 1997 and 2004) and those convictions were overturned by the Mississippi Supreme Court. Three other instances resulted in mistrials, including the 2007 trial where "five African American jurors voted to acquit and the seven white jurors voted to convict." Is that really a surprise there?? I think I said a thing or two about juries, especially in the South. Also, there's no surprise that the juries have ties to the case in the small community of Winona, Miss, which could always influence the outcome itself. The article also details how a young Black female law student who was pulled over without committing an infraction while driving to the courthouse for the trial, while to White law students were not (every part of this story makes me think: "just look at the state, and that's all you need to know").

The outcome of the sixth trial? Curtis Flowers sentenced to death, of course. I wonder what the Mississippi Supreme Court will do this time.

Of course, if Mr. Flowers did commit the crime, the situation is different (although the racial biases still exist). With that being said, going through unprecedented legal lengths to take a Black man's life? A emotionally taxing, financially draining, decade and a half long reason why...America is Racist!

In more serious news...

Hip-Hop Wired has been all over the Oscar Grant murder trial. As noted here, no Black jurors have been selected in the trial of his shooting death, where Johannes Mehserle, a former Bay Area Rapid Transit official, and a current White guy, is accused of the New Year's Day 2009 killing. I may be wrong, but I thought the jury pool was supposed to be reflective of the demographics of the area where the trial is supposed to take place. I also think that there just might be a Black guy or two in Los Angeles (11.2% of the population, according to the Census Bureau). Would it have been too much to take away one White guy and have one Black guy??

The deal is, in situations like these, where a White person harms or kills a Black person, Blacks are usually excluded from the jury pool, because they are the ones who are most likely to say that the cannot separate race from the conditions of the crime. Now I understand that not EVERY White-Black conflict is racially motivated, but is it a stretch to assume that some are? There would be no point of a "hate crime" if that wasn't the case. So if that is the case, why should race ALWAYS be excluded? That can create a loss of objectivity at times (read: White dudes getting reduced time, if any). Now I understand where the hate crime can be overdoing it; if you hate someone to kill them, your bias on them because of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. doesn't really matter. Hate in that situation is hate. In this situation, if it can be determined that he had a negative bias toward a guy because of his race which prompted him to reach for the gun instead of the taser, I think that race should be a factor. Excluding a Black person from the jury pool because of that thought is not fair. I don't know how the questions are answered, but maybe if they were put so eloquently like yours truly, there would be more Blacks in the jury pool...

...or maybe not. As The New York Times reported last week, a new study by the Equal Justice Initiative determined that Blacks and other minorities were excluded from juries in the South (shocker!), for a number of reasons, like:

Seeming "arrogant" and "vocal."

Not appearing to be "sophisticated."

Looking "like a drug dealer."

If you don't believe me, scour the study yourself. There's a find option there, and the drug dealer reference is on page 17. Here's another cute excerpt:

"For example, in Albert Jefferson’s capital trial in Chambers County, Alabama, prosecutors segregated potential jurors into lists titled “strong,” “medium,” “weak,” and “black,” and then struck all 26 African Americans on the black list. The trial judge found insufficient evidence of racial bias. Mr. Jefferson was tried by an all-white jury and sentenced to death."

Do I really need to type more?

Segregated jury pools: a reason why...America is Racist!