Defense Rests in Ahmaud Arbery Case; Closing Arguments Next Week

The defense rested Thursday in the trial in Georgia of three defendants for the February 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery, after arguing that he was killed in self-defense during a scuffle over a shotgun.

The prosecution rested Tuesday. As Breitbart News reported:

The prosecution rested its case Tuesday in the murder trial of three white men in Georgia who are accused of killing 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020 while he was jogging — a killing they say was in self-defense, during a scuffle.

The trial is taking place as the nation is also watching the Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Wisconsin, where the jury began its deliberations on Tuesday morning. The cases are being compared by some left-wing observers, who note that the Arbery defendants are claiming that they were attempting a legal citizens’ arrest after they suspected Arbery of trespassing on a neighbor’s property.

But while Rittenhouse was attempting to protect property during a riot, the similarities end there.

Rittenhouse’s lawyers pointed to ample video and forensic evidence he was attacked by his alleged “victims” — one of whom had a gun. The defense attorneys in the Arbery case have a tougher case to make that their clients’ fears were reasonable.

The defense took two days to present its case.

Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley opined that the defense did a good job of making defendant Travis McMichael sound like an expert on the use of force, suggesting the possibility of a hung jury in the racially-charged case.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.