Confederate flag and a portrait of Jefferson Davis in a room named for the United Daughters of the Confederacy in the Giles County courthouse in Tennessee. Image credit: Larry McCormack / The Tennessean
The New York Times
Black Man Wins New Trial Over Confederate Memorabilia in Jury Room
by Vimal Patel
December 4, 2021
Excerpt:
The picturesque jury chamber in the Giles County courthouse in Tennessee featured a giant window with a soaring library, but it had another striking detail: a portrait of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, in a gold-colored frame, as well as other Confederate memorabilia.
A Tennessee appeals court unanimously ruled on Friday that a Black man convicted of aggravated assault and other charges by an all-white jury should get a new trial, saying that prosecutors failed to rebut a claim made by defense lawyers that the room where the jury deliberated was prejudicial to the man, Tim Gilbert.
The decision was issued amid a broader rethinking of the racist and Confederate symbols that have, for generations, dotted town squares, universities and courthouses across the United States. It also comes amid a greater awareness about racial bias seeping into the criminal justice system.
Mr. Gilbert, 56, who was arrested in 2018, and his lawyer argued that having both the grand jury and the trial jury deliberate in the “inherently prejudicial” room — which had been named after the United Daughters of the Confederacy — violated his right to a fair trial, an impartial jury, due process and equal protection, according to court documents.
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Read more at: https://archive.fo/vniOa
Here’s the Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee at Nashville’s December 3rd, 2021 Reversal of the judgments of the trial court and remand of the case for a new trial:
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