Crowds gathered outside the courthouse in coastal Georgia Monday demanding justice for the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery which was caught on camera and sparked outrage across the country. This report produced by Jonah Green.
Jury selection began Monday in the trial of three white men charged with murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger in Georgia.
Crowds gathered outside the courthouse in coastal Georgia Monday demanding justice for the 2020 killing which was caught on camera and sparked outrage across the country.
Arbery was out jogging in a mostly white neighborhood when he was chased and confronted by Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan.
All three have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment, saying they chased and confronted Arbery in order to make a citizen’s arrest and that Travis McMichael killed him with a shotgun in self-defense. They face life in prison if convicted.
Arbery’s family and their supporters say he was targeted because he was Black.
The judge overseeing the trial in Glynn County in coastal Georgia said potential jurors could be questioned about their views on race.
Defense lawyers say the McMichaels and Bryan were suspicious of Arbery because he went inside a nearby house that was under construction. The owner of the property has said he believed that Arbery had entered the building site for a drink of water and that nothing was stolen.
The three defendants were also charged by U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors in April with federal hate crimes and attempted kidnapping. The federal trial is due to begin next February.
Ahmuad Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones said she was feeling ‘grateful’ ahead of the trial, hopeful that it may bring justice for her son’s death.
“He wasn’t just a jogger that was jogging in a neighborhood in south Georgia. Ahmaud was actually my son. Ahmaud was loved.”
