BRUNSWICk, Georgia, USA (AP) – Number 218 joined a bike tour in support of Ahmaud Arbery’s family after the young African-American was hunted down and shot to death. Number 236 was a long-time co-worker of one of the white men accused of the crime.
Identified in court only by numbers, both people were summoned to serve as jurors in the Arbery murder trial. And after being questioned extensively by attorneys for both parties about the case, the judge determined that the two had a sufficient sense of justice to remain in the group from which the jurors will ultimately be chosen.
Outrage over the murder of Arbery, 25, in February 2020, resonated across the United States after video of the shooting was released online two months later. With jury selection underway in the 85,000 Georgia community where the crime occurred, it seems increasingly likely that some of the selected jurors will have preconceptions and personal ties to the case.
The judge, prosecutors and defense attorneys have questioned 71 members of the group since the selection process began on Monday. After dismissing those with personal difficulties or ingrained prejudices, 23 were deemed fit to continue in the process. Dozens more will be needed before a final jury of 12 members and four alternates can be chosen.
During questioning of potential jurors, prosecutor Linda Dunikoski often told them that the ideal jury would be “a blank page.” At the murder trial, he added, that is probably impossible.
“We can’t get that because the news has been everywhere,” Dunikoski said in court on Thursday.
Greg and Travis McMichael, father and son, armed themselves and chased Arbery in a pickup truck after seeing him running in their neighborhood. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the chase and took cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery three times with a shotgun at point-blank range.
Greg McMichael, who had recently retired after a long career as a district attorney investigator in the area, told police that Arbery had previously been videotaped by security cameras inside a home under construction in the neighborhood and that they suspected that was stealing. He claimed that Travis McMichael shot Arbery in self-defense after Arbery attacked him.
So far, the case has been pushed by foreign authorities. The two McMichael and Bryan were not charged until the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took control of the case from local police. Greg McMichael’s ties to the local prosecutor’s office resulted in the appointment of prosecutors from the greater Atlanta area. Similarly, Judge Timothy Walmsley of Savannah was assigned to preside over the proceedings.
If a jury is formed in Glynn County, where 1,000 subpoenas were sent, the trial will ultimately be decided by people for whom the murder was something much closer.
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