The Arbery Trial: Week One

This past week the Ahmaud Arbery trial started in Brunswick, Georgia. For most of this time, it has been overshadowed in the news by the ongoing Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the case of a young man charged with the killing of two people in a Black Lives Matter protest. With a verdict imminent in the Rittenhouse trial, perhaps, the case in Brunswick will get the full attention it deserves. Let’s hope so.

Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and a neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, are charged with the killing of Ahmaud Arbery after running him down with their pickups, trapping him and shooting him with a shotgun. The defendants claim that their action was warranted under a Georgia citizens arrest law* that allowed a private person to detain someone who in their opinion had committed a felony in their presence. The defendants also claimed the shooting was in self-defense.

The case from the start has been troubled with irregularities. It took two and a half months to arrest and charge Greg and Travis McMichaels and Bryan prompting intervention by state officials and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. During the jury selection, only one Black person was chosen along with eleven white jurors in a county that is 27% Black; the city of Brunswick is 55.1 % Black. Even the Judge, Timothy R. Walmsley, suggested that the jury seemed to have been chosen with race in mind, but said he could not intervene because it followed the law. This week, the defense attorney for Mr. Bryan, the only Glynn County lawyer, complained about the Black pastors sitting with Arbery’s parents, telling the judge that “We want to keep politics out of this case” and “We don’t need any more Black pastors in here.” He went on to claim that the presence of Rev. Al Sharpton intimidated jurors.

Much of the testimony of the week centered around burglaries in the neighborhood and about a house under construction that young Arbery had walked through several times. The homeowner, Larry English, a contractor, said that he had some equipment stolen from his boat, but he did not suspect Arbery. He added that he suspected a white couple caught on his surveillance camera. The defense claimed that there had been numerous thefts and the McMichaels and others reasonably suspected that Arbery was responsible.

The trial resumes today.

*The law was passed in 1863 to round up escaped slaves and was later used to justify the lynching of African Americans. It was repealed one year after the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery.