Zimmerman Jury Racist, Sexist? Trayvon Martin Jurors Almost All White Women

The George Zimmerman jury selection process is over and somewhat surprisingly the jury is composed entirely of women.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the race of the George Zimmerman jury has supposedly been a major factor from the start.

Racial tensions have surrounded the case from the beginning. Various studies show that blacks and Hispanics believe Zimmerman would have been arrested sooner if Trayvon Martin had been white instead of black. So it wouldn’t be surprising if the racial backgrounds of the George Zimmerman jury are considered important.

George Zimmerman himself is hispanic. Before the Trayvon Martin shooting eve took place, George Zimmerman was one of the few non-black people that helped protest the beating of a black homeless man by the son of a Sanford police officer. In the same time frame George Zimmerman was helping blacks, he was video taped saying, “I would just like to state that the law is written in black and white. It should not and cannot be enforced in the gray for those that are in the thin blue line.” Ironically, the same police department George Zimmerman protested for racial violence and cover-ups is the police department that investigated Zimmerman after Trayvon Martin.

The six person George Zimmerman jury is identified as B29, B76, B37, B51, E6 and E40. Four alternate jurors, labeled as E54, E28, B72, and E17, are two white men and two white women. Out of these 10 people only one person, B29, is non-white. She’s labeled as “unknown race” but it’s guessed she’s either African American or Hispanic, with some speculating she’s both.

Some people might argue the Zimmerman jury is racist because it doesn’t accurately represent the area. After all, 29.2 percent of the Sanford population is black. Seven out of 40 potential jurors were completely black, but none were picked for the Zimmerman jury.

Yet, at the same time, the only concern should be whether or not the jury is fair and impartial in considering the evidence. The race of the George Zimmerman jury shouldn’t be a factor and I’d argue that even considering the racial makeup of the Zimmerman jury to be important is racist. How much melanin a person has in their skin shouldn’t even be a consideration. To assume that either an all-white Zimmerman jury or an all-black Zimmerman jury would be biased is racism in itself.

Another consideration is the gender of the Zimmerman jury. Doug Keene, a jury consultant in in Texas, claims, “Women tend to be more reflexively opposed to the use of violence generally, and also be aware that most violence is perpetrated by men, for just or unjust reasons.”

While acknowledging statistical trends, one should not automatically assume this means the jury will be biased against George Zimmerman. For example, Jose Baez, lead attorney for Casey Anthony, says the George Zimmerman jury is a “slam dunk” for the defense:

“I think the defense clearly won the day on this one. Any way you slice and dice it, this is a defense jury.”

As evidence for this position, Baez cites two of the Zimmerman jurors, one who is familiar with guns and the other had a concealed carry permit.

Brian Tannebaum, president of the Florida Association of Bar Defense Lawyers, points out that predicting the actions of the Zimmerman jury based upon gender may be fruitless:

“There’s always that notion of men and women viewing things differently – that women can be more sympathetic, or can listen better than men. But I have no idea how to gauge a jury in a case like this, where the facts are not your typical facts.”

Do you think the George Zimmerman jury selection results for the Trayvon Martin shooting trial are racist or sexist?