They are still lynching black people in the US.

US capitalism has troops in up to 200 countries round the world. According to its paid liars they are there to defend democracy. This claim is completely undermined by the kind of society that exists in the US itself.

There has recently been a new study done for the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit human rights and legal services organization in Montgomery, Ala. This study shows that the practice of excluding black people from Southern juries remains widespread and largely unchecked. Take a few examples. In Madison County, Ala., a prosecutor was asked to explain why he had struck 11 of 14 black potential jurors in a capital murder case. This man said that one had seemed "arrogant", and "pretty vocal" and in another he had "sensed hostility." He also questioned the "sophistication" of a former army sergeant, a forklift operator with three years of college, a cafeteria manager, an assembly line worker, and a retired Department of defense program analyst. These were all black.

The study by the Equal Justice Initiative found that 75% of black jury pool members had been struck in death penalty cases. An analysis of Jefferson Parish, La., by the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center found that from 1999 to 2007, blacks were struck from juries at more than three times the rate of whites. In North Carolina at least 26 death row inmates were sentenced by all white juries. What we see here is a set up. Picking juries with the most chance of being prejudiced against black people.

Studies have shown that racially diverse juries deliberate longer, consider a wider variety of perspectives, and make fewer factual errors than all white juries, and that predominantly black juries are less likely to impose the death penalty. In other words racially diverse juries are more capable and more fair and more humane.

In many cases white judges are in on this racist selection racket with white prosecutors. One judge allowed a black potential juror to be dismissed because he "looked like a drug dealer." Another because the man had a goatee, with the prosecutor saying the he did not like the way the potential juror looked. Prosecutors have struck jurors claiming it was because they were unemployed or single parents and judges have gone along with this.

The Equal Justice Initiative explains that jury diversity is especially important because the other decision making roles in the criminal justice system are held mostly by white people. In the eight Southern states examined, more than 93% of the district attorneys are white. In Arkansas and Tennessee, all of them are white.

The American so called criminal justice system remains viciously racist. This is understood by black Americans, especially working class black Americans. To build the kind of united working class movement that will be able to work in the interests of all American working people white workers must understand and oppose this vicious racist system. We must oppose this modern form of lynching which stacks juries to send black people on to death row.

Sean.