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October 2021

Posted by Andrew Branca on October 22, 2021 229 Comments
Hey folks, I’m Attorney Andrew Branca, for Law of Self Defense. Today I’d like to share with you a tragic story out of New Mexico involving the actor Alec Baldwin (perhaps best known for his small but powerful role in the 1992 movie “Glengarry  Glenn Ross”—“coffee is for closers!”—and his long-standing role as boss Jack Donaghy on the television program “30 Rock.”)

The Tragic Event

I’ll briefly quote from a New York Times story on the event:
Alec Baldwin discharged a prop firearm on the set of a Western he was making in New Mexico on Thursday, killing the film’s director of photography and wounding the movie’s director, the authorities said. The cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, 42, was killed, and the director, Joel Souza, 48, was injured … . The circumstances of the shooting are under investigation.
It’s separately reported that Alec Baldwin was also a co-producer of the movie.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 21, 2021 20 Comments
A professor of theater at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina is facing the possibility of termination over nothing more than students who became offended over nothing. This type of situation is becoming more typical. The names of some students of color were written on a whiteboard for a perfectly innocent reason, but it was misinterpreted by other students looking for a reason to be outraged.

Posted by Andrew Branca on October 21, 2021 11 Comments
Welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the Ahmaud Arbery case, in which defendants Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William Bryan are being tried for murder and other charges in the shooting death of Arbery.  I am, of course, Attorney Andrew Branca, for Law of Self Defense. Today the court proceeded with jury selection, or voir dire, in the case, with the goal of empaneling 12 jurors and 4 alternates.  Today was the fourth group of prospective jurors put through the selection process, with each group nominally numbering 20 people. Today’s voir dire process mirrored that of yesterday, with general (group) voir dire being conducted in the jury assembly room.  We’ll share our notes and video of the general voir dire proceedings with you here.

Key Findings of Today’s General Voir Dire

Of particular note from today’s general voir dire:
  • Nearly half (45%) of prospective jurors had already formed or expressed a belief in the guilt or innocence of the defendants.
  • Nearly half of prospective jurors (45%) had been victims of burglary or home invasion.
  • Three-fourths (75%) of prospective jurors owned firearms in their home (no shock, I guess, if only given their burglary/home invasion experience.)
  • A very large majority (85%) of prospective jurors indicated that they had never engaged in any demonstrations or marches in support of the social justice movement.
  • An even larger majority (90%) indicated that they’d never advocated for or supported the Black Lives Matter movement, even with mere bumper stickers or yard signs.
  • A still larger majority (95%) said that they did not consider the old Georgia state flag, based on a Confederate flag motif, to be a racist symbol.
  • A large majority of prospective jurors (80%) said that people of color are treated fairly by the criminal justice system.
  • On the other hand, almost half of prospective jurors (45%) said that the police, generally, did not treat white and black people equally.
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