Prosecutors make final rebuttal in trial for Ahmaud Arbery's killing before jury begins deliberations
CBSN
Prosecutors get their last chance to address the jury Tuesday morning in the trial of three men charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, in February 2020. The final rebuttal comes after both the prosecution and the defense delivered their closing arguments on Monday.
Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael and their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan have all been charged with murder and other counts for the death of Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was jogging in the neighborhood.
The defense claims the men acted lawfully under the state's citizen's arrest law — which was in effect at the time but has since been repealed — because they were suspicious he might have been involved in neighborhood burglaries. And they say they had a right of self-defense against Arbery who, one defense attorney said Monday, "chose to fight."
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.