Would a black on the jury change the evidence?

 

As part of a gang initiation, Christina Walters kidnapped and shot to death Susan Raye Moore and Tracy Rose Lambert execution-style in North Carolina. She then participated in the carjacking of Debra Cheeseborough, a restaurant manager. Debra was shot seven times and left for dead, but miraculously survived. Investigators say the victims were chosen purely at random. Walters, a Lumbee Indian, was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. 

 

After robbing a finance company in Kingstree, South Carolina, Timothy Golphin shot Highway Patrol Trooper Ed Lowry and Cumberland County (NC) Sheriff's Deputy David Hathcock with an SKS rifle. As the two lawmen lay dying, Timothy's brother took Lowry's gun and shot the two at pointblank range. Timothy was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. This is Timothy. Doesn't he look like a fine upstanding citizen? 

 

 

In 2001, Quintel Augustine shot Police Officer Roy Turner as he got out of his patrol car in an area known for cime and drug activity. Quintel was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. This is Quintel. He looks as fine and upstanding as Timothy does, doesn't he? By the way, Officer Turner was black.

 

Judge Gregory A. Weeks has commuted the death sentences of these three to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The reason is that he feels there weren't enough blacks in the jury pools of their respective trials. But would a black on the jury change the evidence? I would think that a black juror would be just as incensed at the murder of a black man as a white juror would. Judge Weeks happens to be black himself. Perhaps we should get the perspective of a white judge on this one.

 

"Judge commutes 3 death sentences, cites racial bias." The Dallas Morning News; December 14, 2012; p. 7A.