BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The jury has been set and attorneys have presented their opening statements in the federal hate crimes trial of the trio of men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery.
Channel 2′s Tony Thomas was in the Brunswick courtroom for Monday’s proceedings and learned just how emotional, inflammatory and hard to listen to some of the testimony will be in the coming days.
Travis McMichael, his father, Greg McMichael, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan were convicted of Arbery’s February 2020 murder during the state trial in November. Each man received a life sentence.
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In this separate trial, federal prosecutors are setting out to prove that Arbery died because of his race.
“The evidence is if Ahmaud Arbery had been white, he would’ve gone for a jog, checked out a cool house under construction and been home in time for Sunday supper,” federal prosecutor Bobbie Bernstein. “Instead, he ended up bleeding to death alone for no reason other than these three defendants made decisions about him based on the color of his skin.”
Greg McMichael’s defense attorney, A.J. Balbo, countered by reiterating the three defendants’ claims that they thought Arbery was a burglar and that his race had nothing to do with it.
“Greg and Travis McMichael followed Ahmaud Arbery, not because he was a Black man, but because he was the man who had been entering the house under construction,” Balbo said.
None of the attorneys involved are speaking publicly.
Arbery’s parents told Thomas that Monday’s opening statements were shocking.
Prosecutors brought up several instances where the McMichaels, especially Travis McMichael, used the N word and made other derogatory remarks about Black people.
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Arbery’s family says they are content with the makeup of the federal jury.
Judge Lisa Godbey Wood said the jury is made up of eight Caucasian people, three Black people, and one Hispanic person. Three of the alternates are Caucasian and one is a Pacific Islander.
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Both Travis and Greg McMichael were offered plea deals by federal prosecutors. While they accepted them, the judge did not agree to the terms that would have seen the men spend the first 30 years of their life sentences in a federal prison.
Because the plea deal was rejected, both McMichaels chose to instead plead not guilty and face trial alongside Bryan.
The federal government’s first witness will take the stand on Tuesday.
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