- Black religious leaders rallied during the trial of the man accused of killing Ahmad Arbery.
- The defense complained that their presence threatened the jury.
- The judge rejected the complaint.
On Thursday, dozens of black clergymen gathered outside the courtroom. Three white men were tried for the murder of an African-American jogger after the defendant’s lawyer asked the judge to bar “black priests” from entering the gallery.
The rally was organized by the National Action Network, the civil rights organization of Pastor Al Sharpton, after the man who shot to death stood in the witness stand to defend himself.
Gregory McMichael, a 65-year-old retired police officer, his 35-year-old son Travis, and their 52-year-old neighbor William “Rody” Bryan for shooting 25-year-old Ahmed in February 2020. Abery faces murder and other charges.
With shotguns and pistols, McMichaels and Bryan drove a pickup truck to chase Arbery through their Satilla Shores community in Georgia. After a fight, he was shot and killed by a young McMichael.
The closing statement of this high-profile case is scheduled for Monday.
Motion to dismiss the defense
Brian’s lawyer, Kevin Goff, complained to the judge that Sharpton and another well-known civil rights leader, Pastor Jesse Jackson, appeared in the public gallery.
“We don’t want any more black priests to come here,” Gough said, claiming that their presence affected the jury.
Jackson has been in the trial for several days, sitting in the public gallery next to Abery’s mother.
Judge Timothy Wormsley has repeatedly dismissed the defense motions, saying that anyone is welcome to participate in the trial as long as they are not destructive.
On Thursday, dozens of black clergymen responded to Sharpton’s appeal and held a rally outside the courthouse.
Some people wear T-shirts with the words: “I am a black priest, and I am here.”
Martin Luther King III, the son of the assassinated civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., was one of those who addressed the crowd.
“Although I may not be a missionary, there is a ministry,” King said. “Part of this ministry is that whenever you see injustice, you have to stand up.
He added:
We will continue to come back until justice is done for this family.
‘Behave weird’
Sharpton responded to the defense lawyer’s statement that the presence of black priests in court may scare the jury.
“When the police intervened, I had participated in the trial for 40 years. They were crowded with uniformed police officers in the courtroom. No one said it was intimidation or influence,” he said.
The rally took place the day after the defense placed Travis McMichael on the witness stand.
Under cross-examination, McMichael said that he thought Abery was a thief, and he was very active in the neighborhood. He had seen him a few days ago.
He said that Abery did not display weapons or threatened him in any way, but “behaved strangely.”
“He was very funny,” McMichael said. “So I’m very alert.”
The defendant invoked a repealed state law that allowed ordinary citizens to make arrests, but McMichael admitted in an interrogation by prosecutor Linda Dunikoski that he had not told Arbor at any time Here he is seeking to arrest him.
Mike Michael, who was sitting in the truck with his father, said that he tried to talk to Abery running through the window many times, but he refused to answer and “stopped, turned and walked in the other direction.”
The fatal encounter occurred after McMichael took his shotgun and left the driver’s side. A fatal encounter occurred in front of the pickup truck. Abery, who had been chased for more than five minutes, bypassed the passenger’s side.
“He turned around and we attacked each other,” McMichael said.
Dunikowski asked McMichael why he claimed in the witness stand that Abery told the police after the shooting that he did not remember whether it happened and seized his shotgun.
“I just killed a person. I still have blood on my body,” he said of his mentality in an interview with the police.
He said:
This is the most traumatic event in my life.
Video of the Abery shooting went viral on social media, adding fuel to the racial injustice protests triggered by the murder of George Floyd last year.
There was only one black juror in the 12-person jury to hear the case, although approximately 25% of the 85,000 residents of Greene County where the trial was conducted were black.
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