Georgia Gov. Kemp repeals Civil War-era citizen’s arrest law year after Ahmaud Arbery shooting

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp repealed a Civil War-era state citizen’s arrest law this week, signing new legislation more than a year after the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man pursued by White men who suspected him of a crime in their neighborhood. 

Kemp, a Republican, signed on Monday House Bill 479, which, in part, revises the grounds for an arrest by a private person by ending the right for bystanders to make an arrest in Georgia if a crime is committed in their presence “or…