Prosecutors and defence lawyers on Friday presented duelling portraits of Ahmaud Arbery, who was either an innocent black runner fatally shot by three white strangers or “a scary mystery” who had been seen prowling around a Georgia neighbourhood.
A Georgia prosecutor told a jury that the three white men on trial for the killing of Arbery wrongly assumed the worst about the black man when they chased and shot him as he jogged through their neighbourhood in February 2020.
“A very wise person once said, 'Don't assume the worst of another person's intentions,'" prosecutor Linda Dunikoski said in her opening statement, in which she described the accused threatening Arbery with violence.
“They assumed that he must have committed some crime that day. He tried to run around their truck and get way from these strangers, total strangers, who had already told him that they would kill him. And then they killed him.”
Gregory McMichael, 65, his son Travis McMichael, 35, and neighbour William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment and face life in prison if convicted on the most serious charge.
Prosecutors say when the accused saw a black man on a Sunday afternoon jog through a mostly white neighbourhood, they mistook him for someone fleeing a crime.
The men's defence lawyers said they were justified in trying to detain Arbery under a citizen's arrest law that was codified during the Civil War. That law was later repealed amid outrage over the killing, which spurred nationwide protests after mobile phone video surfaced more than two months later.
“All three of these defendants did everything they did based on assumptions,” Ms Dunikoski said as she showed videos of Arbery's final minutes.
“They made decisions in their driveways based on those assumptions that took a young man's life and that is why we are here.”
She told the mostly white jury in Glynn County Superior Court they would see Arbery's Nike running shoes, their tread almost entirely worn away because he was such an avid runner.
A few minutes before he was killed, he was running “really fast” past the McMichaels' house, where the elder Mr McMichael was out in his driveway fixing cushions for his boat, Ms Dunikoski said.
Gregory McMichael ran inside his house to retrieve his handgun while hailing his son, who grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun. The two got in a pickup truck and began chasing Arbery, trying to ask him what he was running from.
“I assumed something was up,” Travis McMichael later told police when explaining why he chased Arbery, Ms Dunikoski told the jury.
Mr Bryan soon saw the chase from his own driveway and got in his own pickup truck to join in. Ms Dunikoski repeatedly called the truck a “5,000-pound lethal weapon” used to assault Arbery.
Mr Bryan tried to hit Arbery four times with his truck as he tried to force Arbery off the road into a ditch, Ms Dunikoski said. After a few minutes, Arbery was cornered.
“Ladies and gentleman, at this point in time, Mr Arbery is under attack by all three of these men,” she said.
She said the accused had deadly intent, pointing to something the elder Mr McMichael told police he shouted at Arbery: “Stop or I'll blow your [expletive] head off!”
He also told police they had trapped Arbery “like a rat".
Arbery's father left the courtroom before Mr Bryan's mobile phone video of the shooting was played, which shows the younger Mr McMichael pointing his shotgun at Arbery, who runs towards it before the fatal shots are fired. Arbery's mother sobbed into a man's shoulder in the courtroom gallery.
A defence lawyer for Travis McMichael put the shooting in a much different light. Robert Rubin described Arbery to the jury as “an intruder” who had four times been recorded on video “plundering around” a neighbouring house under construction.
The McMichaels gave chase, hoping to detain Arbery until police arrived, Mr Rubin said, but Arbery refused to stop and lunged towards Travis and his gun.
“It is a horrible, horrible video, and it’s tragic that Ahmaud Arbery lost his life,” Mr Rubin said.
“But at that point, Travis McMichael is acting in self-defence. He did not want to encounter Ahmaud Arbery physically. He was only trying to stop him for the police.”
Controversy erupted this week when prosecutors objected to a final jury consisting of 11 white jurors and one black juror. They argued that defence lawyers had cut eight potential jurors from the final panel because they were black, which the US Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley agreed that there appeared to be “intentional discrimination” but said Georgia law limited his authority to intervene because defence lawyers stated non-racial reasons for excluding black panelists from the jury.
Agencies contributed to this report
'The Ice Road'
Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
Stars: Liam Neeson, Amber Midthunder, Laurence Fishburne
2/5
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
UAE%20FIXTURES
%3Cp%3EWednesday%2019%20April%20%E2%80%93%20UAE%20v%20Kuwait%3Cbr%3EFriday%2021%20April%20%E2%80%93%20UAE%20v%20Hong%20Kong%3Cbr%3ESunday%2023%20April%20%E2%80%93%20UAE%20v%20Singapore%3Cbr%3EWednesday%2026%20April%20%E2%80%93%20UAE%20v%20Bahrain%3Cbr%3ESaturday%2029%20April%20%E2%80%93%20Semi-finals%3Cbr%3ESunday%2030%20April%20%E2%80%93%20Third%20position%20match%3Cbr%3EMonday%201%20May%20%E2%80%93%20Final%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Premier League results
Saturday
Crystal Palace 1 Brighton & Hove Albion 2
Cardiff City 2 West Ham United 0
Huddersfield Town 0 Bournemouth 2
Leicester City 3 Fulham 1
Newcastle United 3 Everton 2
Southampton 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1
Manchester City 3 Watford 1
Sunday
Liverpool 4 Burnley 2
Chelsea 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1
Arsenal 2 Manchester United 0
Tour de France
When: July 7-29
UAE Team Emirates:
Dan Martin, Alexander Kristoff, Darwin Atapuma, Marco Marcato, Kristijan Durasek, Oliviero Troia, Roberto Ferrari and Rory Sutherland
WITHIN%20SAND
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Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The specs: Fenyr SuperSport
Price, base: Dh5.1 million
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 800hp @ 7,100pm
Torque: 980Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 13.5L / 100km
Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
The%20specs
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Film: Raid
Dir: Rajkumar Gupta
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Ileana D'cruz and Saurabh Shukla
Verdict: Three stars
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Grubtech
Founders: Mohamed Al Fayed and Mohammed Hammedi
Launched: October 2019
Employees: 50
Financing stage: Seed round (raised $2 million)
The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
RESULTS
5pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 2,200m
Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Fernando Jara (jockey), Ahmed Al Mehairbi (trainer)
5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: AF Seven Skies, Bernardo Pinheiro, Qais Aboud
6pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner: Almahroosa, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
6.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner: AF Sumoud, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner: AF Majalis, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh90,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Adventurous, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
From Conquest to Deportation
Jeronim Perovic, Hurst
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
'Joker'
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix
Rating: Five out of five stars
Profile
Company name: Jaib
Started: January 2018
Co-founders: Fouad Jeryes and Sinan Taifour
Based: Jordan
Sector: FinTech
Total transactions: over $800,000 since January, 2018
Investors in Jaib's mother company Alpha Apps: Aramex and 500 Startups
Scoreline
Saudi Arabia 1-0 Japan
Saudi Arabia Al Muwallad 63’
Pox that threatens the Middle East's native species
Camelpox
Caused by a virus related to the one that causes human smallpox, camelpox typically causes fever, swelling of lymph nodes and skin lesions in camels aged over three, but the animal usually recovers after a month or so. Younger animals may develop a more acute form that causes internal lesions and diarrhoea, and is often fatal, especially when secondary infections result. It is found across the Middle East as well as in parts of Asia, Africa, Russia and India.
Falconpox
Falconpox can cause a variety of types of lesions, which can affect, for example, the eyelids, feet and the areas above and below the beak. It is a problem among captive falcons and is one of many types of avian pox or avipox diseases that together affect dozens of bird species across the world. Among the other forms are pigeonpox, turkeypox, starlingpox and canarypox. Avipox viruses are spread by mosquitoes and direct bird-to-bird contact.
Houbarapox
Houbarapox is, like falconpox, one of the many forms of avipox diseases. It exists in various forms, with a type that causes skin lesions being least likely to result in death. Other forms cause more severe lesions, including internal lesions, and are more likely to kill the bird, often because secondary infections develop. This summer the CVRL reported an outbreak of pox in houbaras after rains in spring led to an increase in mosquito numbers.
The Vile
Starring: Bdoor Mohammad, Jasem Alkharraz, Iman Tarik, Sarah Taibah
Director: Majid Al Ansari
Rating: 4/5
UAE Rugby finals day
Games being played at The Sevens, Dubai
2pm, UAE Conference final
Dubai Tigers v Al Ain Amblers
4pm, UAE Premiership final
Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Jebel Ali Dragons
The years Ramadan fell in May
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
