Judge refuses for-cause challenge to potential juror wearing Confederate flag T-shirt
A judge in South Carolina last week rejected a public defender’s for-cause challenge to a potential juror who showed up to the courthouse wearing a Confederate flag T-shirt.
Assistant public defender Monier Abusaft asked a judge in York to remove the juror because Abusaft felt that the shirt and its message were confrontational, the Rock Hill Herald reports. The T-shirt read, “If this flag offends you, you need a history lesson.”
“To me, it was problematic—not just the flag, but the message,” Abusaft told the Herald.
The judge—whom the Herald did not name—refused to remove the potential juror, because she told the judge she could be fair and impartial. Abusaft used a peremptory challenge to remove the juror, even though his client was not a minority.
The prosecutor, Matthew Hogge, told the Herald that he also found the flag T-shirt to be offensive, and he would have used a peremptory strike to remove the juror if Abusaft hadn’t acted.
University of South Carolina law professor Kenneth Gaines told the Herald the woman may have worn the T-shirt in hopes that a judge would send her home and she wouldn’t have to serve as a juror.
