Arbery trial jury begins deliberation
Prosecutors hammer claims of self-defense
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Jurors in the case of three white men charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery deliberated for about six hours Tuesday without reaching a verdict as they weighed prosecution arguments that the defendants provoked the fatal confrontation against defense attorneys’ insistence that their clients acted in self-defense.
After initially indicating they wanted to work into the evening, the jurors were soon dismissed by the judge with instructions to resume deliberations Wednesday morning.
“We are in the process of working to reach a verdict,” the foreperson told Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley.
After more than two weeks of testimony and closing arguments, the prosecution got the last word because it carries the burden of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski spent two hours Tuesday morning hammering at defense attorneys’ attempts to blame the 25-year-old Black man for his own death. Defense attorneys said Arbery lashed out violently with his fists to resist a lawful citizen’s arrest by the defendants.
“You can’t claim self-defense if you are the unjustified aggressor,” Linda Dunikoski told jurors in her final statement. “Who started this? It wasn’t Ahmaud Arbery.”
Dunikoski said Arbery’s pursuers had “no badge, no uniform, no authority” and were “just some strange guys in a white pickup truck.” And she cited their own words to police immediately after the shooting, when they said they saw Arbery running but were unsure if he had committed a crime.
“You can’t make a citizen’s arrest because someone’s running down the street and you have no idea what they did wrong,” Dunikoski said.
Once the prosecution wrapped up, Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley gave instructions to the jury on how to apply the law before the panel started deliberations at the Glynn County courthouse in the port city of Brunswick.
Arbery’s killing became part of a larger national reckoning on racial injustice after a graphic video of his death leaked online two months later.
Father and son Greg and Travis Mcmichael grabbed guns and pursued Arbery in a pickup after spotting him running through their subdivision on Feb. 23, 2020. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the chase and recorded the video of Travis Mcmichael opening fire as Arbery threw punches and grabbed for Mcmichael’s shotgun.
No one was charged in the killing until Bryan’s video leaked and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police. All three men are charged with murder and other offenses.