Closing arguments to begin in Ahmaud Arbery U.S. hate-crimes trial

[February 21, 2022]  By Rich McKay

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (Reuters) - With closing arguments set to begin Monday in the trial of three white men accused of federal hate crimes in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black jogger, in south Georgia, legal experts say the prosecution had a high bar to meet.

Arbery, who had been out for a run through a mostly white neighborhood in February 2020, was chased down by Travis McMichael, now 36; his father, former police officer Gregory McMichael, 66; and neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan, 52. The younger McMichael then killed Arbery with a shotgun.

The slaying, caught on cellphone video, was one of several of Black men and women -- often by police -- that helped reignite racial justice protests in recent years.

The three men have already been convicted in state court of murder and sentenced to life in prison. The federal prosecution is the first in which those who carried out such a high-profile murder are facing a jury in a hate-crime trial. If convicted, they face up to life in prison, in addition to their state sentences.

Legal experts and court observers say federal prosecutors proved their case but cautioned that predicting what jurors will decide is tricky.

"The prosecution's theory is that they were inveterate racists," said Nirej Sekhon, a professor of criminal law at Georgia State University who has been following the case.

"They need to show that racism saturated every dimension of their lives and informed their decision to chase Mr. Arbery," he said in a telephone interview. "I believe that they've met that bar, that they can tether their (the defendants') mindset to their actions."

The defense rested its case on Friday after presenting only one witness to the jury of nine white people and three Black people. Legal observers say the defense doesn't have to prove anything but may rely on closing arguments.

The federal lawyers presented 20 witnesses over four days in an effort to prove the three acted out of racial ill will.

That argument is buttressed by a parade of witnesses and a racist digital footprint stretching back almost a decade.

Barbara Bernstein, a special prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, told jurors during the trial, "They saw a Black man running down the street, so he had to be a thief."

A.J. Balbo, a defense attorney for Gregory McMichael, called Arbery's killing "an American tragedy," but said the three men were motivated by a desire to protect their neighborhood, not race.

To make his point, Balbo presented a witness who reported seeing a white homeless man living under a nearby bridge. Gregory McMichael made a similar report to police without specifying a race. The witness, however, wasn't positive it was the same incident.

 A woman holds a sign outside the Glynn County Courthouse after the jury reached a guilty verdict in the trial of William "Roddie" Bryan, Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael, charged with the February 2020 death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, in Brunswick, Georgia, U.S., November 24, 2021. REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo

Page Pate, a federal criminal defense lawyer from Brunswick, Georgia, who has been following the case closely, said he sees a win coming for the government.

"I was surprised by how much evidence of racial animus they found; they really dug deep," he said in a telephone interview.

On Friday, the prosecution presented testimony from witness Carole Sears, who is white, that in 2015 Gregory McMichael went on a rant against Black people after she remarked that civil rights standard-bearer Julian Bond had died.

She recalled him saying, "I wish that guy had been in the ground years ago," and "All those Blacks are nothing but trouble, and I wish they'd all die."

Travis McMichael had shared numerous racist messages online and once posted a video of a Black child dancing on Facebook, adding the song "Alabama Nigger" by Johnny Rebel, a recording artist whose work supported white supremacy.

Another white prosecution witness, Kristie Ronquille, testified on Friday that Travis McMichael, then her supervisor in the U.S. Coast Guard, subjected her to racist and sexual insults in 2011 after learning she had once dated a Black man.

Ronquille cried on the stand.

As for Bryan, numerous text messages and other online posts showed a long history of racist slurs and comments.

In text messages with a friend, Bryan said he was upset his daughter had started dating a Black man, and he used a racial epithet. In other online messages, he referred to celebrations on Martin Luther King Jr. Day as "monkey parades" and used other slurs.

Regarding the defense, Pate said the three men's attorney were smart not to rehash all the racist text messages and comments before the jury.

"It's difficult to try to confront the evidence of racial bias," Pate said. "They don't want to emphasize that to the jury. It's on social media, what are you (defense attorneys) going to do?"

The best defense strategy there is to say nothing until closing arguments, he said.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Brunswick, Georgia; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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