Ahmaud Arbery Trial Has a Big Challenge Early

Selecting a jury is expected to take weeks
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 18, 2021 6:53 AM CDT
In Ahmaud Arbery Case, First Big Challenge Is Jury Pool
This combination of booking photos provided by the Glynn County, Ga., Detention Center, shows, from left, Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and William "Roddie" Bryan Jr.   (Glynn County Detention Center via AP, File)

Hundreds of people were ordered to report for jury duty Monday in Georgia for what could be a long, laborious effort to find jurors to hear the trial of three white men charged with fatally shooting Ahmaud Arbery as he was running in their neighborhood, per the AP. The slaying of the 25-year-old Black man sparked a national outcry fueled by graphic video of the shooting. Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan are charged with murder and other crimes in Arbery's death on Feb. 23, 2020, just outside the port city of Brunswick.

Court officials in Glynn County mailed jury-duty notices to 1,000 people, expecting a potentially slow process to find jurors in a community where the slaying dominated news coverage and swamped social media feeds. That means about one in every 85 people in Glynn County received a jury notice, notes the Washington Post. An attorney for one of the defendants says he won't be surprised if a jury cannot be formed and the case must be moved to elsewhere in the state. At a minimum, jury selection is expected to last two weeks.

Prosecutors say Arbery was merely jogging when the McMichaels armed themselves with guns and chased him in a pickup truck. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck and took the now-infamous cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery three times at close range with a shotgun. Defense attorneys insist the three men committed no crimes. Greg McMichael told police they pursued Arbery suspecting he was a burglar after security cameras previously filmed him entering a nearby home under construction. He said Travis McMichael fired his gun in self-defense after Arbery attacked him, punching and trying to grab the weapon.

story continues below


Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X