‘Race cases should be heard by ethnically diverse juries’
SYSTEM NOT GEARED TO GIVE BLACK PEOPLE JUSTICE, SAY STABBED TEEN’S FAMILY
THE family of a schoolboy who was killed a year ago is planning to launch a campaign for juries to be ethnically diverse.
Dea-John Reid, 14, was chased down by a “lynch mob” in Kingstanding, Birmingham, where he was stabbed to death in May 2021.
Birmingham crown court last Friday (6) sentenced a 15-year-old boy, who was part of the group, to six years and six months in detention for manslaughter, but absolved him of murder.
His co-defendants – George Khan, 39, of Newstead Road in Birmingham; Michael Shields, 36, of Alvis Walk; and two teenagers – were all cleared of murder.
A sixth person, Hollie Davies, 36, of Waldon Walk in Birmingham, was found not guilty of assisting the offender.
Reid’s family, however, said that “justice had not been done” and that the mostly white jury did not reflect the ethnically diverse Birmingham community.
“Dea-John was a 14-year-old black boy who was chased by a lynch mob and knifed to death... We can’t allow that to happen. We need ethnically balanced juries in race cases,” his family’s representative, Right Rev Desmond Jaddoo, told the Times newspaper.
“Dea-John’s civil rights [were] completely abused. This system is not geared up to give black people justice.”
The laws in England provide for challenging an individual juror on the question of competence, but there is no legal obligation to make juries racially diverse.
Reid’s mother, Joan Morris, who sat through the trial thinking that justice would prevail, said she felt “let down” by the system.
“This verdict of manslaughter, while the others are all found not guilty, just goes to prove to me that the life of my son, a young black man, did not matter,” she said.
Following an earlier altercation, Reid was separated from his friends and stabbed by the 15-year-old who was armed with a large kitchen knife. Despite being treated by paramedics, Reid was pronounced dead at the scene.
The prosecution used DNA evidence, CCTV footage, maps, witness testimony as well as a detailed reconstruction in order to secure the conviction.
In addition, CCTV recordings showed Reid being chased with weapons being visibly brandished.
Speaking after the conviction, Kate Seal, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “I cannot begin to imagine the crippling sense of loss felt by Dea-John’s family and friends. The verdict of manslaughter will not undo the devastation felt by so many at the senseless loss of a young life.
“Such unnecessary violence has no place in our society and the death of Dea-John Reid should have never happened.”