The murder trial of three white Georgia men charged in the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man prosecutors allege was "hunted down" and shot to death while out for a Sunday jog, has begun.
The evidence portion of the high-profile case kicked off just after 9 a.m. Friday in Glynn County Superior Court in Brunswick, Georgia.
"I do feel like we're getting closer to justice for Ahmaud day by day," Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said in an interview scheduled to be broadcast Friday night on ABC's "Nightline."
Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was allegedly killed by a father and son while jogging on Feb. 23, 2020.
Courtesy Arbery family
The trial started under a cloud of controversy after a jury comprised of 11 white people and one Black person was selected on Wednesday, prompting an objection from prosecutors that the selection process, which took nearly three weeks, ended up racially biased.
On Thursday afternoon, one of the seated jurors, a white woman in her 40s or 50s, was dismissed from the panel for undisclosed medical issues. One of the alternate jurors, a white person, replaced her, bringing the number of alternates to three. All of the alternates are white.
Greg McMichael, center, listens to his attorney during a motion hearing at the Glynn County Courthouse, Nov. 4, 2021, in Brunswick, Ga. McMichael and his his son, Travis McMichael, and a neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, are charged with the February 2021 slaying of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery.
Stephen B. Morton/Pool via AP
Travis McMichael attends the jury selection in his trial, together with Gregory McMichael and their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, charged with the February 2020 death of Ahmaud Arbery, at the Gwynn County Superior Court, in Brunswick, Georgia, Oct. 27, 2021.
Octavio Jones/Reuters
William "Roddie" Bryan, right, listens to proceedings during a motion hearing at the Glynn County Courthouse, Nov. 4, 2021, in Brunswick, Ga. Bryan, Greg McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, are charged with the February 2021 slaying of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery.
Stephen B. Morton/Pool via AP
The three defendants are Gregory McMichael, 65, a retired police officer; his son, Travis McMichael, 35; and their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, 52.
The men have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
The McMichaels and Bryan were also indicted on federal hate crime charges in April and have all pleaded not guilty.
Arbery was out jogging on Feb. 23, 2020, through the Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick when he was killed.
The jury of 11 white people and one Black person was sworn in by Judge Walmsley.
The judge acknowledged that many of the jurors have never served on a jury before. During his instructions, he went over the charges against the three defendants and told jurors the men have all pleaded not guilty to the charges.
"The charges and the plea of not guilty are of evidence of guilt," Walmsley told the panel, which sat socially distant, divided between the jury box and one side of the courtroom gallery.
"The defendants are presumed innocent until each is proven guilty. Each defendant enters upon the trial of the case with a presumption of innocence in his favor," he said.
Nov 05, 2021, 9:48 AM EDT
Judge makes last-minute rulings
Judge Timothy Walmsley, who is presiding over the murder trial, made his final rulings on motions before the jury was expected to be sworn in to hear opening statements.
Walmsley denied a defense motion to blur out a Confederate flag vanity plate that was on the front of Travis McMichael's pickup truck that was used to chase down Arbery on the day he was killed. Walmsley declared the vanity plate was relevant to the case after prosecutor Linda Dunikoski argued at a recent hearing that there was circumstantial evidence that Arbery saw the license plate as the truck came toward him and prompted him to reverse course.
"He put this on his truck. He wanted the world to see it," Dunikoski alleged of Travis McMichael, accusing the defense of being "disingenuous" for asking that the plate be blurred out.
The judge also denied a request from the defense to allow the jury to hear that Arbery was on probation at the time of his death.
