Jesse Jackson: Trayvon Denied Jury of His Peers

Jesse Jackson on MSNBC Sunday morning:

JESSE JACKSON: Frankly, I am stunned over this disgrace, this tremendous miscarriage of justice. When the jury says not guilty: he’s at least guilty of murder. An armed man, racially pursuing and profiling a young African-American boy, and kills him. And in this case, the prosecutor denied, should I say ignored the matter of race, and the defense denied this. But the fact of the matter is this is a pattern of behavior toward young African-American men, whether it is Grant in Oakland, or Diallo in New York or Trayvon Martin in Florida, and it’s very painful.

MSNBC: Reverend, I want to ask you about the make-up of the jury. You tweeted this after the verdict was handed down, you tweeted: “The jury, no black and no men, was always suspect.” Do you feel this affected the outcome: the make-up of the jury?

JACKSON: Well, it was a stretch, trying to avoid the obvious. There was no–you speak of jury of your peers: there was no man on the jury–Trayvon was a black boy–there was no man, no black on the jury. So at least the idea of jury of your peers was a stretch all the while.