Criminal justice is a minefield in the United States, especially when it deals with the racial issue in the former segregationist South.
Proof of this was given on Monday in Brunswick, a small coastal, residential and predominantly white town south of beautiful Savannah (State of Georgia).
It was there that the young black man was shot dead by Gregory and Travis McMichael, who suspected him of being a burglar while he was doing his daily jog in their neighborhood of Satilla Shores.
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The trial of his suspected killers opened on Monday, October 18, with the laborious jury selection process.
More than 1000 citizens are summoned to fill the twelve jury seats, plus four substitutes, who will ultimately decide the fate of the McMichaels and an alleged accomplice, William "Roddie" Bryan, 52, who filmed the scene and the disclosed, hoping for clemency.
Heavy prison sentences
The controversy did not take long.
Defense attorneys had previously asked Judge Timothy Walmsley if they could question potential jurors about their views on the Confederate flag and its racist overtones.
Yes for the flag, they were told, on condition that
"it does not extend in length
.
"
Not to evoke the Black Lives Matter movement, however.
"It is not part of this case
, argued Walmsley,"
and it is not part of the criminal investigation. "
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Asked what they thought of the McMichaels, seven of the first twenty jurors interviewed admitted to having a
"negative feeling"
. At least three others said they saw a racist symbol in the Confederate flag. The pickup belonging to Travis McMichael, 35, sported license plates with the old rebel flag, removed from most standard bearers in the Southern states since the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Arbery affair, which predated George Floyd's death, had initially gone unnoticed.
A local judge had buried the case for two months before being forced to recuse himself.
It appeared that Gregory McMichael, a 65-year-old former police officer, had worked for a time as an investigator for the Glynn County Court, which encompasses the city of Brunswick.
He and his son, Travis, neighbor Roddie Bryan face heavy prison terms, and possibly life imprisonment, for murder, aggravated assault and forcible confinement.
All three plead not guilty.
The McMichaels claim to have wanted to carry out a
“citizen arrest”
which would have gone badly.
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Bryan's poorly framed video reveals a sudden chase between the jogger and the two men who jumped aboard their pickup, an equally short summons, gun in hand, a brief fight between Ahmaud Arbery and son McMichael , still rifle in hand, then a shot.
And a young man bathed in blood, shot point blank in the stomach.
“We know it was a racist crime, but I leave it to God,”
sighs Ahmaud's father, Marcus Arbery.