(Washington) Did the three white Americans on trial for the murder of jogger Ahmaud Arbery “attack” him “because he was black” or did they “take responsibility” in the face of a potential burglar? The two theses clashed Monday at the end of a very sensitive trial.
In a sharp indictment, prosecutor Linda Dunikoski addressed for the first time head-on the racial dimension of the tragedy that occurred on February 23, 2020 in Brunswick, a coastal town in the southern United States.
That day Gregory McMichael, 65, his son Travis, 35, and their neighbor, William Bryan, 52, made the decision to hunt Ahmaud Arbery “on a whim” “because he was black. and he was running in the street, ”she said.
“They scared him” by chasing him in pickups and with guns. He had no weapons and did nothing other than “run to escape for five minutes” before being shot, she continued. It was an “attack on Ahmaud Arbery”.
The prosecutor echoed the parents of the jogger, who assure that their 25-year-old son was targeted because of the color of his skin. Since the start of the trial, they have received support from prominent members of the African American community, including dozens of black pastors.
On Monday, armed black protesters were seen near the court, according to a defense lawyer who unsuccessfully asked the judge to overturn the trial.
“Dirty nails”
The jurors, the defendants’ lawyers asked to acquit their clients.
When Travis McMichael, the author of the fatal shots, chased Ahmaud Arbery with a gun, “it was not about taking someone’s life”, but about his “sense of duty and responsibility”, said his lawyer, Jason Sheffield.
“Travis thought he had committed a burglary” and wanted to arrest him under a Georgia state law that allowed ordinary citizens to carry out arrests, he explained. “He never thought it would end like this. ”
In the months preceding the tragedy, Ahmaud Arbery had indeed been filmed, on several occasions, on the site of a house under construction, but “entering private land is not a crime” and there is no evidence that there is never stole anything, said the prosecutor.
This did not stop Father McMichael’s lawyer, Me Laura Hogue, to attack the deceased, a “handsome teenager” who has, according to her, “gone bad” and was probably not in this residential area to jog. Otherwise, “why didn’t he wear socks to hide the long, dirty nails on his toes?” She said.
Her tirade prompted Ahmaud Arbery’s mother to leave the room and was denounced on Twitter by the powerful civil rights organization NAACP, which deemed her “shameful and disgusting”.
“Who pointed his rifle?” ”
The defendants also pleaded self-defense. Last week, Travis McMichael assured jurors that Ahmaud Arbery had refused to cooperate. The young man “seemed crazy” and had tried to grab his weapon, he said again: “It was a life or death situation”.
“We have the right to defend ourselves, to use force capable of causing death […] if we believe that it is necessary and, at the time, Travis judged that it was necessary ”, added his lawyer Monday.
Going even further, Me Laura Hogue assured that Ahmaud Arbery was “not a victim”: “he is dead […] because he chose to fight ”.
“Who pointed his rifle?” “, Replied Linda Dunikoski:” one cannot invoke self-defense when one is the author of the initial and unjustified aggression “.
Speaking last, Kevin Gough made a point of distinguishing his client, William Bryan, from the McMichaels. “He had no weapons” and did not know that the father and the son had them, underlined the lawyer. In addition, he pointed out, he immediately provided the video of the drama.
The dissemination of these images, more than two months after the events, had allowed the investigation to start.
The prosecutor will have the floor for the last time on Tuesday morning. It will then be up to the twelve jurors, including one black man, to decide unanimously whether each of the accused is guilty or innocent.