© Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News / USA TODAY NETWORK
Syndication: Savannah Morning News
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Jury selection got underway Monday in Georgia, with hundreds of people ordered to report for what could be a long, laborious effort to find jurors in the trial of three white men charged with fatally shooting Ahmaud Arbery as he was running in their neighborhood.
The slaying of the 25-year-old Black man sparked a national outcry fueled by graphic video of the shooting leaked online more than two months after Arbery was killed. Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan are charged with murder and other crimes in Arbery’s death on Feb. 23, 2020, just outside the port city of Brunswick.
Jury selection could last two weeks or more. Arbery’s father said he’s praying for an impartial panel and a fair trial, saying Black crime victims too often have been denied justice.
“This is 2021, and it’s time for a change,” Marcus Arbery Sr. said in an interview. “We need to be treated equally and get fair justice as human beings, because we’ve been treated wrong so long.”
The first panel of 20 jurors was sworn in and questioned Monday afternoon. Judge Timothy Walmsley instructed them all to wear masks, and they were seated 6 feet apart in pews of a courthouse jury room.
When the judge asked panelists if their minds were perfectly neutral regarding both sides of the case, only one raised a hand. Asked if they were already leaning toward either side, about half raised their hands to indicate yes.
Only one panel member acknowledged knowing members of Arbery’s family or the three defendants and their families. A woman said she knew Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones.
“I know her from being around,” the woman said, “but not personally.”
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski questioned the jurors after the judge. Her last question to the first panel: “Please raise your card if you would like to serve on this jury.”
At first, nobody did. Finally, one young man raised his hand. He was the only one.
Jason Sheffield, one of Travis McMichaels’ attorneys, asked the first group of 20 whether they had any negative feelings about the three defendants. At least 12 raised their hands.
The court has not identified the race of any of the prospective jurors.
