The Arbery Trial: Week Two

The second week of the Ahmaud Arbery trial in Brunswick, Georgia, was both dramatic and enlightening. And as it has developed, the case has increasingly caught national attention with the story making most of the major cable and network broadcasts.

The big news of the week was the testimony of Travis McMichael who shot and killed Arbery. Speculation was that it was too risky for the defense to put Mr. McMichael on the stand given his reported reputation as a gun toting racist. The defense, apparently, thought they had little choice but to “humanize” him and let him tell his side of the story. His testimony and demeanor did help soften his popular image and it helped establish his credentials as someone trained in law enforcement, something the defense wanted to get on the record.

Unfortunately for the defense, the risk was proven right when under severe cross-examination by the prosecutor Mr. McMichaels contradicted himself and failed to present sufficient evidence that he had no choice in his actions. His testimony along with video and photographic evidence of the actual killing seemed to contradict any claims of “self defense” for what took place on February 23, 2020.

A further complication developed when it appeared that the judge might not permit use of the now defunct Georgia law that permitted “citizen arrests” as a possible defense by the defendants. Under that law a citizen had to have actually witnessed an alleged crime and act promptly in reporting it. The defendants did neither.

Much of the news about the case has been the result of attorney Kevin Gough’s repeated requests for a mistrial based on his charges that Black ministers in the courtroom might intimidate the jurors. This past Thursday Gough also charged that the large gathering of onlookers, ministers and protesters in front of city hall amounted to a “public lynching” of the defendants reminiscent of past incidents of lynching Black citizens in the South.

This Monday the attorneys will make their closing arguments and the case will go to the jury.