Welp, this is awkward, Y’all.
Apparently, somebody done screwed up and forgot that America has rules about racial arrangements when it comes to criminal justice. Everybody and they mama knows who is supposed to sit in judgement and who needs mercy, especially when a Black man and a white woman enter a courtroom.
But yesterday, the racial choreography was flipped on its head in the Lindsay Clancy case. Back in 2023, this white mother who was suffering from postpartum depression, strangled her three children to death before failing to take her own life. After deliberating for nearly 40 hours and deadlocking, the jury returned its 11-1 split.
M’kay, so maybe like you, I expected to hear all the usual arguments over reasonable doubt, mental illness, or some such. But then we heard that the lone holdout was a Black man. And he was the only Black juror among 11 others in that room.
I read that and was like: “Well, damn. That’s quite an historical inversion.”
My mind immediately went back in time and thought about famous racially-charged cases: George Stinney Jr., The Scottsboro Boys, Emmett Till, Walter McMillian, the Groveland Four, Ed Johnson, Willie McGee, and others. Okay, so the Clancy case is not analogous to those historical cases of course. There’s no interracial accusation or crime here, but there’s still an unmistakable historical echo.
This lone Black man wasn’t begging white jurors to see his humanity and for once the courtroom wasn’t waiting to hear his fate. A white woman was waiting for judgement and for grace to be extended to her. We’re used to white juries deciding if a Black person is credible, innocent, guilty, sane or insane, dangerous or redeemable, or deserving of mercy. Black folks have spent centuries in this country, watching white America discover complexity for accused whites while mercy for Black folks is often in short fucking supply. That’s because our pain, desperation, childhood traumas, social histories, and suffering explains absolutely nothing to the folks deciding our fate.
Listen, none of us know what was in that Black man’s head or heart. We don’t know anything about his politics or his personal experiences with the police, courts, or white women. Did her race and gender cross his mind over those 40 hours of deliberation while sitting around that table with 11 other white folks?
Maybe. Maybe not.
Was he sittin’ there with a racial ledger of Black men and boys in his head? Michael Brown, Jr.? Tamir Rice and Freddie Gray? Eric Garner and George Floyd. Tyre Nichols and Karmelo Anthony?
I don’t know if this man is a father. But could he have been sitting there wondering what would have happened if a Black man had strangled his three children? Would anybody in that courtroom be working so hard to afford him that much psychological complexity and grant him mercy? Or would a Black man just be a monster with no backstory?
I dunno.
But maybe, just maybe, the defendant’s race and gender had nothing to do with this Black man’s decision. Could it be that he just looked at the evidence? Is it possible that he found the prosecution more persuasive? Did he believe that the legal standard for lack of criminal responsibility wasn’t met?
I can imagine what it must have been like for this Black man to be “the only one” in the room. Lots of Black folks know what that’s like. We know what it feels like for all that consensus to mutate into pressure and watch disagreement get recast as obstinacy. And yet despite all that pressure, this Black man stuck out his chest and still said: “**No.” **
No! Your 11 votes ain’t about to become 12 because my one vote makes y’all uncomfortable. No! Just because y’all feel certainty does not mean I am obligated to abandon my vote. No! I don’t owe this room consensus. His no vote was culturally explosive because there’s an entire history of Black life packed inside his audacious refusal.
And now, folks are out here in the digital streets shifting their attention on this man. Some folks wanna know who this man is. They wanna know what’s wrong with his mind? They want him to explain the reasoning behind his vote. Why wouldn’t he budge? And they’re already digging into his private life for dirt. A few outlets have dug up allegations of domestic violence and an active restraining order. And surprisingly, some folks on the right are praising this man for various reasons.
All these reactions are fascinating to me because history has taught us that America has always had difficulty with Black folks who refuse to cooperate with the emotional consensus of the room. Especially when the person who might benefit from that consensus is a white woman.
Now listen, Y’all . . . you and I both know that America takes notes and keeps receipts whenever the racial order accidentally malfunctions. And I believe that somewhere, somebody watching a Black man holding his ground against 11 white jurors is saying, “Well, boys, we won’t be letting that shit happen again! Never again must we allow a Black man in a courtroom where a white woman’s freedom requires his mercy.”
I don’t know about you, but I can already imagine future voir dire questionnaires adding: “If you are a Black man, please check one of the following selections: Agreeable, extremely agreeable, or willing to reconsider.”
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