Opening statements in the murder trial of Ahmaud Arbery began on Friday, kicking off tense court proceedings with a mostly all-white jury.
Three men, father and son Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, have been charged with the February 2020 Brunswick, Georgia murder of Arbery, an unarmed Black jogger in their neighborhood. The McMichael’s armed themselves with guns while Bryan drove and took cellphone footage as the men hunted down Arbery. The disturbing video shows the truck coming to a halt, with the McMichael’s exiting the vehicle and fighting with the 25-year-old before Travis is seen shooting him three times with a shotgun. The men initially claimed self-defense because they thought Arbery was a burglar but were ultimately charged with murder after the cellphone footage leaked online.
The video of Arbery’s killing was shown in Friday’s hearing, where his parents became overwhelmed with emotion. His father, Marcus Arbery Sr., left the courtroom as the clip was being played, while his mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, wept at the sight of her son’s final moments.
In her opening statement, Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski pointed out that neither man had any encounter with Arbery before he was hunted down, nor did they have knowledge of his whereabouts before seeing him jogging in their neighborhood.
“They made decisions in their driveways based on their assumptions that took a young man’s life, and that’s why we are here,” said Dunikoski.
Since day one, the case has been draped in controversy. In recent days, activists slammed the decision to remove eight potential Black jurors from the trial, allowing the jury to consist of 11 white people and only one Black person. In an interview with ABC News scheduled to air Friday night on “Nightline,” Cooper-Jones called the primarily white jury “very, very discouraging.”
The trial is expected to last for a month.
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