Ahmaud Arbery murder case may evoke Georgia's history on race: Experts

Trial of 3 white men in Ahmaud Arbery slaying to dreg up Georgia's history on race. Brunswick, Glynn County, shooting, racial, hate crime, vigilante, citizens arrest

In a state that didn't have a hate-crime law until this year and where vigilante citizens' arrests were sometimes permitted by the government, three white men are set to go on trial for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man prosecutors allege was "hunted down and ultimately executed" while out for a Sunday jog.

Jury selection begins on Monday in the high-profile case that sparked nationwide protests and sent Georgia lawmakers scrambling to rewrite the state's statutes. Legal experts say they expect the graphic details of how the 25-year-old Arbery was gunned down to be intertwined with Georgia's long history of racial unrest.

Lee Merritt and Benjamin Crump, the Arbery family attorneys, have called the killing a "modern-day lynching" and said the accused are now trying to use Georgia's laws at the time of Arbery's death to defend their actions.

"There's some segment of that community that believes what they did was a good thing. That's not a fringe opinion. That defense is what their lawyers are hanging their hat on," Merritt told ABC News.