Reuters
A Georgia judge denied a motion for a mistrial on Friday in the Ahmaud Arbery murder case from a defense lawyer who claimed that Black pastors outside the courthouse were a “woke left mob” that influenced the jury in the trial of three white men.
More than 200 pastors gathered on Thursday outside the Glynn County courthouse in coastal Brunswick, Georgia. Organizers said it was a response to defense attorney Kevin Gough’s previous comments that he “didn’t want any more Black pastors” in the courtroom.
Several nationally known Black clergy and civil rights leaders including Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King III have sat with Arbery’s family in the courtroom at various times.
Gough’s client, William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, along with Greg McMichael, 65, a former policeman, and his son Travis McMichael, 35, are charged with the 25-year-old Black man’s murder. Prosecutors say they chased and shot Arbery to death as he took a Sunday afternoon jog on Feb. 23, 2020.
The three men have all pleaded not guilty and have said they were trying to make a citizen’s arrest of a man they thought was a burglar. They face life in prison if convicted by the jury of 11 white people and one Black man.
