Judge lets civil rights leader stay at trial
Defense attorney sought to have Jesse Jackson barred from court.
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TOP STORY ARBERY CASE
BRUNSWICK — Days after an attorney representing one of the men charged in Ahmaud Arbery’s death called on Black pastors to be banned from the courtroom, the Rev. Jesse Jackson walked in and took a seat.
Attorney Kevin Gough then asked Judge Timothy Walmsley to remove the prominent civil rights leader from the gallery.
Walmsley denied the request and called Gough’s comments “reprehensible.”
“Mr. Gough, at this point I’m not exactly sure what you’re doing,”
Walmsley said, noting that he wasn’t aware Jackson had entered the courtroom until the attorney brought attention to it. “You need to understand your words in this courtroom have an impact on a lot of what’s going on.”
Gough, who represents William “Roddie” Bryan, drew criticism last week when he objected to the Rev. Al Sharpton sitting in on court proceedings with Arbery’s parents.
“We don’t want any more Black pastors coming in here,” Gough said Thursday.
He argued having “high-profile members of the African American community” in the courtroom could pressure or intimidate the jury.
On Monday, he renewed his complaint after Jackson took a seat at the back of the courtroom, his face mask pulled down at his chin.
“In the context of this trial, we object to his presence in the public gallery inside the courtroom,” Gough said.
“How many pastors does the Arbery family have? ...
I don’t know who Reverend Jackson is pastoring here.”
Having Black clergy inside the courtroom, Gough argued, is “no different than bringing in police officers or uniformed prison guards in a small town where a Black man has been accused of assaulting a law enforcement officer or corrections officer.”
He then likened the murder trial to an NBA game.
“With all due respect, your honor, the seats in the public gallery of a courtroom are not like courtside seats at a Lakers game,” he said.
“There is no reason for these prominent icons in the civil rights movement to be here.”
Gough also referred to Georgia’s Democratic Sen.
Raphael Warnock, who has served as senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church since 2005.
“I guess the next question is this: Which pastor is next?” he asked. “Is Raphael Warnock going to be the next person appearing here this afternoon? We don’t know.”
Several Black clergy members gathered at the Glynn County Courthouse on Monday, and even more are expected later this week after family attorney Ben Crump called for “100 Black pastors” to join him in Brunswick.
Walmsley, who also denied the defense’s motion for a mistrial, reminded Gough that the trial is being held in a public courtroom and said unless a member of the gallery is disruptive, he has no intention of banning anyone from observing.
“The court is not going to single out any particular individual or group of any individuals as not being allowed in this courtroom as a member of the public,” the judge said.
The backlash to Gough’s remarks last week was swift.
By Thursday evening, Sharpton issued a stinging rebuke of the Brunswick attorney, calling his comments insensitive to Arbery’s family, who had invited him to come for the trial.
Civil rights leaders have criticized the racial composition of the jury in the trial, which includes 11 white members and one Black man in this coastal Georgia county where more than a quarter of the population is Black.
Jackson expressed concerns about the mostly white jury during a lunchtime news conference on Monday.
He likened the case to other high-profile killings of young Black men, including Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, and called Arbery’s death the “Emmett Till of our day.”
Jackson said he expects to be in Brunswick throughout the week to support Arbery’s family, saying it is a “moral obligation” to help people in need whose “backs are against the wall.”
Arbery, 25, was shot and killed in February 2020 after being chased through the Satilla Shores neighborhood by three white men in pickup trucks.
Bryan faces murder and other charges, along with neighbor Greg McMichael, who initiated the chase, and his son, Travis McMichael, who fired the shotgun blasts that killed him.
The case drew nationwide attention after Bryan’s cellphone recording of the shooting became public. But it wasn’t until the GBI took over the case more than two months after Arbery was killed that any arrests were made.
Prosecutors on Monday called several GBI agents to the stand, including Agent Lawrence Kelly, who walked jurors through a digitally enhanced video of the chase and deadly shooting.
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, lowered her head and shut her eyes while the slow-motion cellphone footage of her son’s death was shown repeatedly.
BRUNSWICK — Days after an attorney representing one of the men charged in Ahmaud Arbery’s death called on Black pastors to be banned from the courtroom, the Rev. Jesse Jackson walked in and took a seat.
Attorney Kevin Gough then asked Judge Timothy Walmsley to remove the prominent civil rights leader from the gallery.
Walmsley denied the request and called Gough’s comments “reprehensible.”
“Mr. Gough, at this point I’m not exactly sure what you’re doing,”
Walmsley said, noting that he wasn’t aware Jackson had entered the courtroom until the attorney brought attention to it. “You need to understand your words in this courtroom have an impact on a lot of what’s going on.”
Gough, who represents William “Roddie” Bryan, drew criticism last week when he objected to the Rev. Al Sharpton sitting in on court proceedings with Arbery’s parents.
“We don’t want any more Black pastors coming in here,” Gough said Thursday.
He argued having “high-profile members of the African American community” in the courtroom could pressure or intimidate the jury.
On Monday, he renewed his complaint after Jackson took a seat at the back of the courtroom, his face mask pulled down at his chin.
“In the context of this trial, we object to his presence in the public gallery inside the courtroom,” Gough said.
“How many pastors does the Arbery family have? ...
I don’t know who Reverend Jackson is pastoring here.”
Having Black clergy inside the courtroom, Gough argued, is “no different than bringing in police officers or uniformed prison guards in a small town where a Black man has been accused of assaulting a law enforcement officer or corrections officer.”
He then likened the murder trial to an NBA game.
“With all due respect, your honor, the seats in the public gallery of a courtroom are not like courtside seats at a Lakers game,” he said.
“There is no reason for these prominent icons in the civil rights movement to be here.”
Gough also referred to Georgia’s Democratic Sen.
Raphael Warnock, who has served as senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church since 2005.
“I guess the next question is this: Which pastor is next?” he asked. “Is Raphael Warnock going to be the next person appearing here this afternoon? We don’t know.”
Several Black clergy members gathered at the Glynn County Courthouse on Monday, and even more are expected later this week after family attorney Ben Crump called for “100 Black pastors” to join him in Brunswick.
Walmsley, who also denied the defense’s motion for a mistrial, reminded Gough that the trial is being held in a public courtroom and said unless a member of the gallery is disruptive, he has no intention of banning anyone from observing.
“The court is not going to single out any particular individual or group of any individuals as not being allowed in this courtroom as a member of the public,” the judge said.
The backlash to Gough’s remarks last week was swift.
By Thursday evening, Sharpton issued a stinging rebuke of the Brunswick attorney, calling his comments insensitive to Arbery’s family, who had invited him to come for the trial.
Civil rights leaders have criticized the racial composition of the jury in the trial, which includes 11 white members and one Black man in this coastal Georgia county where more than a quarter of the population is Black.
Jackson expressed concerns about the mostly white jury during a lunchtime news conference on Monday.
He likened the case to other high-profile killings of young Black men, including Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, and called Arbery’s death the “Emmett Till of our day.”
Jackson said he expects to be in Brunswick throughout the week to support Arbery’s family, saying it is a “moral obligation” to help people in need whose “backs are against the wall.”
Arbery, 25, was shot and killed in February 2020 after being chased through the Satilla Shores neighborhood by three white men in pickup trucks.
Bryan faces murder and other charges, along with neighbor Greg McMichael, who initiated the chase, and his son, Travis McMichael, who fired the shotgun blasts that killed him.
The case drew nationwide attention after Bryan’s cellphone recording of the shooting became public. But it wasn’t until the GBI took over the case more than two months after Arbery was killed that any arrests were made.
Prosecutors on Monday called several GBI agents to the stand, including Agent Lawrence Kelly, who walked jurors through a digitally enhanced video of the chase and deadly shooting.
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, lowered her head and shut her eyes while the slow-motion cellphone footage of her son’s death was shown repeatedly.