Broader jury pool sought for Arbery death hate crimes trial

By RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Attorneys in the upcoming federal hate crimes trial of the white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery want the jury pool to come from an expansive area of Georgia. A joint legal filing by prosecutors and defense attorneys asks a federal judge to seek the jury from the 43 counties that make up the federal court system’s Southern District of Georgia. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Feb. 7 in U.S. District Court. That will be less than three months after father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, were convicted of murder in a state court. The three white men have pleaded not guilty in the the federal case, where they’re accused of targeting Arbery because he was Black.