Trial In America

Earlier this week the above photograph was trending on twitter and other social media platforms of Kyle Rittenhouse selecting which jurors would be removed from the jury pool of his homicide trial. It’s a fascinating photograph that I am sure will soon be utilized in school textbooks across the country over the next several decades, when studying America during this period. In seeing the photograph then reading the context of the photograph I couldn’t help but think of two specific criminal cases in recent history. First, the Curtis Flowers murder trial(s) and second, the Kalief Browder robbery arrest. I hope you’ll notice that for the latter, I wrote arrest, and not trial.

This reflection won’t have much to do with Kyle Rittenhouse’s incident as much as it has to do with the bold words written above the steps of the United States Supreme Court: Equal Justice Under Law.

Moreover, don’t forget the image above as you read along. It’s very important.

Curtis Flowers was accused of murdering four people at Tardy Furniture store in Winona, Mississippi. Mr. Flowers was tried six times by the same prosecutor. The first trial was thrown out because the Mississippi supreme court found significant errors in the manner in which the district attorney had prosecuted Mr. Flowers. The others ended in either a hung jury (unable to determine guilt or innocence), mistrial, or similar to the first trial and thrown out because of procescurtial errors.