Government

Arbery Judge Refuses To Declare Mistrial Over Presence Of Black People In Courtroom

But if we'd just stop teaching critical race theory, this problem would go away, right?

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The latest mistrial request by a defense attorney defending one of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers is disgusting, which is of a piece with this entire sad series of events.

Lest we forget, the 25-year-old Black man was gunned down in a Georgia subdivision by three White vigilantes when he was out jogging. As he lay dying, one of them stood over him calling him a “fucking n—-r.” It took 74 days, massive public outcry, and a video of the entire event for Arbery’s killers to be arrested, thanks to local prosecutors, one of whom is facing charges for her role in the effort to keep her trigger happy buddies out of jail.

Race was always going to be an issue here. But defense attorney Kevin Gough’s attempt to weaponize race is truly filthy.

It started during jury selection when Gough complained that ““It would appear that White males born in the South, over 40 years of age, without four-year college degrees, sometimes euphemistically known as ‘Bubba’ or ‘Joe Six Pack,’ seem to be significantly underrepresented.”

Including the alternates, the jury selected is composed of 15 White jurors and 1 Black juror, in a county where 26 percent of residents are Black. Naturally, Gough was unperturbed by this underrepresentation.

Last week, Gough objected to the presence of Black clergymen sitting in the courtroom with Arbery’s family, including Rev. Al Sharpton. Gough characterized their presence as “intimidating.”

“We don’t want any more Black pastors coming in here” he said, adding that “If a bunch of folks came in here dressed like Colonel Sanders with white masks sitting in the back, that would be — ” before Judge Timothy Walsey cut him off and said he wasn’t going to be excluding any members of the public from the court simply because they were famous Black people.

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Yesterday when Rev. Jesse Jackson sat with the family, Gough was similarly incensed, claiming his client couldn’t get a fair trial with all these scary Black civil rights icons in the room.

“Which pastor is next?” he whined. “Is Raphael Warnock going to be the next person appearing this afternoon?”

Gough went on to describe the mere presence of Black people as “witness tampering.”

“If there’s any evidence out there that would suggest that there’s been any effort — conscious or unconscious — to tamper with this jury or influence these jurors, whether here on the courthouse steps this morning, or in Black media, the state has an obligation to pursue it,” he filibustered.

Gough’s dogwhistling — if something so screechingly obvious could even be called that — provoked outcry from Sharpton, who vowed to bring 100 Black pastors to form a “wall of prayer” outside the courthouse on Thursday. Judge Walsey had no time for Gough’s objections to the protest, noting that the pastors were summoned “directly in response, Mr. Gough, to statements you made, which I find reprehensible.”

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Then yesterday jurors were briefly removed from the courtroom when Arbery’s mother began to cry, after which defense attorneys for all three clients demanded a mistrial. Because Black people expressing emotion over their slain children is inherently prejudicial?

But Judge Walsey was not swayed.

“At this point I’m not exactly sure what you’re doing,” he said, adding, “And with all candor, I was not even aware that Reverend Jackson was in the courtroom until you started your motion.”

The case will soon be with the jury. But the stink in the courtroom will linger for a long while to come.

Defense attorney in Ahmaud Arbery’s killing objects to presence of Black pastors in courtroom [WaPo]
Judge rejects mistrial request in Arbery case, calls defense lawyer’s comments ‘reprehensible’ [WaPo]

Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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