Juror wearing Confederate flag clothing dismissed from York, SC trial, officials say
.jpeg "A juror was dismissed from a South Carolina trial Wednesday after wearing clothes with a Confederate flag design.")
A juror was dismissed Wednesday from a trial in South Carolina after wearing clothing with a Confederate Flag to a York County courthouse, officials said.
The juror was removed by Judge Dan Hall from a criminal trial being held at the Moss Justice Center in York, court and law enforcement officials said.
The defendant in the case was African-American, court officials said. The race of the dismissed juror was not known.
A court security officer noticed the clothing Wednesday and alerted Hall, said Trent Faris, spokesman for the York County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office provides security to the courts building and courtrooms.
The judge then told the defense lawyer and prosecutor in the case about the jacket, which had a black and white Confederate Flag on it, said Angie Smarr, York County Deputy Clerk of Court.
Criminal trials in General Sessions court in South Carolina typically have 12 jurors and at least one alternate. The juror was an alternate, Smarr said.
The judge, prosecutor and defense lawyer agreed the woman should be dismissed as a juror, Smarr said.
The defense made a motion for a mistrial that was denied by Hall, Smarr said.
The trial continued with the 12 seated jurors, Smarr said.
The defendant was found guilty by the jury Wednesday night of drug and weapons charges and sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to officials and court records.
Confederate Flag in courts
The flag of the Confederacy, which has been appropriated by the Ku Klux Klan and other groups considered racist or hate organizations, is often viewed as a symbol of racial animus.
The flag’s effect on courts and courthouses is not new in York County, the state of South Carolina or the country.
In 2016, lawyers in a criminal trial at the Moss center used a juror strike to remove a woman as a potential juror after she wore a Confederate Flag shirt to court.
In 2017, The York County Clerk of Court did not put a Confederate Flag and other Confederacy relics back into the main courtroom of the York County Courthouse in downtown York after renovations were done. The flag and relics had hung for decades in the historic courthouse.
The decision not to re-hang the flag caused protests and a lawsuit by supporters of the Confederate Flag. Others supported the decision not to reintroduce items of perceived racial hatred back into the courthouse.
In 2021, an a appeals court ruled a Black man in Tennessee should get a new trial because jurors deliberated in a room with the Confederate Flag and other Confederacy relics, according to court records and several news outlets including S.C. Statehouse.
The Confederate Flag flew above the S.C. Statehouse dome under South Carolina state sanction until 2000 when it was moved to the statehouse grounds. In 2015 it was lowered and later put in a museum. That decision was made by the S.C. General Assembly after nine African-Americans were killed at a Charleston church by a white man.
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 10:14 AM.
