How a Prosecutor Addressed a Mostly White Jury and Won a Conviction in the Arbery Case

“Anyone with warm blood in their veins who saw the video and knew the context knew it was wrong,” said King.

The case echoed painful subjects in the deep south from the start. The murder of a black man by white men carrying guns was brought before a jury composed of only one black man. The rest was white. The jury was appointed because of the protests of Ms. Dunikoski, who had unsuccessfully tried to prevent potential black jurors from being removed by the defense attorneys during the selection process. It was also a painful moment for Glynn County, a predominantly white county that still has a legacy of segregation.

Updated

Nov. 24, 2021, 9:08 p.m. ET

The district town of Braunschweig had received awards decades ago for the way in which its black and white leaders worked together to integrate schools and public institutions. But the selection of such a racially one-sided jury had aroused anger and suspicion in a district in which more than one in four residents is black. Near Brunswick are four barrier islands known as the Golden Isles, a popular tourist destination that is also home to some of the country’s richest people.

Prior to the trial, Ms. Dunikoski, 54, who declined to be interviewed, had spent her career primarily in the metropolitan area of ​​Atlanta, building a reputation as a persistent prosecutor prosecuting killers, gang members and sex offenders. By the end of the trial, she had won the Arbery family’s trust so deep that they called her Aunt Linda.

The case took a tortuous path before landing on Ms. Dunikowski’s lap. Two local prosecutors initially handled the case, but both eventually withdrew, citing conflicts of interest; One of the former prosecutors, Jackie Johnson, has been charged with her handling of the case. It was in the hands of a third DA office before being turned over to the more resource-rich Cobb County, where Ms. Dunikoski has been working since 2019.

Prior to joining the Cobb County office, Ms. Dunikoski served as a prosecutor in Fulton County for more than 17 years, where one of her most famous cases was the trial of a group of teachers at the Atlanta Public Schools found guilty of extortion in 2015 and other fees for changing students’ standardized test scores. Critics said prosecutors offered a group of mostly black educators as scapegoats for a school district that had much deeper systemic problems.

In 2009, Ms. Dunikoski was jailed by a judge for failing to pay a $ 100 fine after the judge cited her for contempt, according to The Associated Press. The district attorney at the time is said to have quarreled with the judge, arguing that he had unjustifiably damaged the reputation of an honest lawyer.