[Video] Our Justice System
Published by Andy Coon June 16th, 2006 in Obvious Reasons, 11/03/79 Tags: African American, CWP, excerpt, Greensboro, Greensboro Massacre, KKK, Lewis Pitts, Nazi, State Trial, video.Lewis Pitts explains how the prosecuting attorney selected jurors for the State Trial for the November 3rd, 1979 shootings:
From the News & Record article, Blame for shooting shared, report says:
[…]
The all-white jury in the state criminal trial was caused by a “problematic jury selection process.” Before 1986, defense attorneys and prosecutors could strike a potential juror from the pool based on race.
On Thursday night, former District Attorney Mike Schlosser, who tried the state criminal cases, said he agreed with those findings. Defense attorneys dismissed black jurors, which he said hampered his efforts to convict the Klansmen.
“It would have been much more fair to have a jury that represented the community,” he said.
[…]
Much was made over the years about the jury have zero African-American representation, but no one seemed to care about the prosecuting attorney’s public attitude towards communism and his proclivity to allow obvious anti-Communist citizens to sit on the jury.
These actions are more damning than not having a jury representing a mix of races, as they were prosecuting Klan and Nazi members for killing Communist Worker Party members.
On the flip side of the coin, the Klan members had court appointed attorneys representing them, who just so happened to be the top defense attorneys in Greensboro at that time.
African American, CWP, excerpt, Greensboro, Greensboro Massacre, KKK, Lewis Pitts, Nazi, State Trial videoSearch
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Official Greensboro had quite the distorted understanding of which threats were clearest and most present. To cite just one example, from p. 30 of the GTRC report: “Concerned that they might be outnumbered by hostile protesters and by-standers, Lt. Ward asked Police Attorney Cawn if [Nelson] Johnson’s speech to the gathered Morningside residents [immediately after the shootings] was enough to charge him for disorderly conduct. Cawn said yes because he felt Johnson was inciting the crowd. Cawn remembers Johnson’s words to be “Go get your guns and let’s kill some cops.” The video demonstrates that this is an incorrect recollection, but it was similar to the recollection of many other officers at the scene, which demonstrates the level of threat police thought that Johnson posed to public safety and their assessment of the volatility of the situation.” (Emphasis added.)