Federal hate crimes trial starts for 3 men convicted in Ahmaud Arbery’s death
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (WTOC) - Once again, all eyes will be on Brunswick on Monday. The three men have already been convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in the state’s case, but now the same three defendants head to federal court charged with hate crimes.
Travis McMicheal, his father Greg and William Roddie Bryan are all facing federal hate crime charges in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
The trial starts on Monday morning with Jury selection. The process of selecting jurors today will look similar to what we saw during the state’s case back in November and it once again could be a long process.
Judge Lisa Wood from the Southern District of Georgia plans to bring in 25 potential jurors in the morning and then another 25 in the afternoon. That process will continue as long as possible to seat a fair and impartial jury of 12 jurors and 4 alternates.
Judge Wood says this will be a slow and methodical process. One thousand people have been summoned for jury selection in the federal trial. The counties included in the summons are Glynn, Liberty, Bryan, Effingham, Bulloch, and Chatham counties.
The attorney for Ahmaud Arbery’s family says he is hopeful all three men will receive the maximum sentence possible in the federal hate crimes case.
“It’s the same battle. We’re just going further up the hill. We still haven’t gotten to the top yet. At the top is 100 percent justice for Ahmaud,” said Clifford Jones who is representing the Arbery family.
Last week two of the defendants, Greg and Travis McMicheal were denied a plea deal and later withdrew their guilty pleas. Now, the McMichaels and their neighbor, William Roddie Bryan will all go to trial in this case.
The federal courthouse here in Brunswick is prepared for the trial to last three weeks but of course it could be longer or shorter than that time. It all starts up Monday morning inside with the first potential jurors.
The judge is hoping to narrow the potential juror pool to 36 before moving onto the next phase of the jury selection process.
Since this is a federal case, inside of the courthouse, media is not allowed to get any video or audio recording and there will be limited seating. The families of the victim and defendants will have priority but if there is additional seating for the public, it will be first come basis.
Outside of the courthouse, the 1500 block of Ellis Street will be closed to vehicle traffic the entire trial. Also the parking spaces in front of the federal courthouse on Gloucester Street and at the Post Office Parking lot will not be available during the trial. If you need to access a P.O. box, they will only be open from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day and it will be closed at night through the remainder of the trial.
There will be an increase of vehicle and pedestrian traffic during the trail so please keep an eye out for additional people when driving in Brunswick.
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