Chilli of the legendary girl group, TLC, has weighed in on the jury selection for the trial of the alleged killers of Ahmaud Arbery.
Hundreds of potential jurors were questioned for more than two weeks. By the end, just one Black juror had been selected and 11 white.
Despite the odds, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas says that the race of the jurors should not matter.
“We have to believe that there are kind, good-hearted people out there no matter what color they are, so I would say let’s look at it like that. Just because it’s not the same skin color doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t be fair, because to me it’s pretty obvious what happened,” she told TMZ.
“I’m a Christian, and honestly I have to hope and believe that maybe some of those guys are too. We just have to hope that, again, they’re gonna be truthful about this… And if it’s not right, it’s gonna be an outrage for sure and one that is understandable. Let’s just all hope and pray,” she added.
Arbery was jogging on February 23, 2020, when Gregory and Travis McMichael confronted him. He was fatally shot during the encounter. It took two months for the local authorities to arrest and charge his killers. They each face nine charges, including murder and aggravated assault and have pleaded not guilty.
Attorneys for Arbery’s family have called his death a “modern-day lynching.” The McMichaels argue that they were attempting to make a “citizen’s arrest.”
Ahead of the trial, Greg McMichael’s lawyer Franklin Hogue told BBC News, “They got in the truck to pursue Mr Arbery for the purpose of detaining him long enough for the police to arrive to take over and investigate whether in fact he had committed any crimes. That turned from a citizen’s arrest into self-defence.”
