Defense Tries to Oust Jesse Jackson From Courtoom

But judge in Ahmaud Arbery case allows him to stay
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 15, 2021 1:19 PM CST
Defense Tries to Oust Jesse Jackson From Courtoom
The Rev. Jesse Jackson enters the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga. Monday.   (Terry Dickson/The Brunswick News via AP)

The flap over "Black pastors" in the courtroom in the Ahmaud Arbery trial took another turn on Monday. Tensions flared when the Rev. Jesse Jackson sat in the back row of the courtroom between Arbery's parents, per the AP. Defense attorney Kevin Gough asked the judge to make the civil rights leader leave to avoid unfairly influencing the jury, but the judge refused the request. Last week, Gough also complained when the Rev. Al Sharpton joined Arbery’s parents in the Georgia courtroom, declaring, "We don’t want any more Black pastors coming in here." Arbery was Black, and the three men on trial in his death are white.

On Monday, Gough said: "There is no reason for these prominent icons in the civil rights movement to be here. With all due respect, I would suggest, whether intended or not, that inevitably a juror is going to be influenced by their presence in the courtroom." Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley declined the request to oust Jackson. "The court is not going to single out any particular individual or group of individuals as not being allowed into his courtroom as a member of the public," the judge said. "If there is a disruption, you’re welcome to call that to my attention."

Jackson told reporters outside the courthouse he came to Brunswick to support justice for Arbery's family, not in response to the attorney's prior remarks about Black pastors. "As the judge said, it was my constitutional right to be there," Jackson said. "It's my moral obligation to be there." Also on Monday, the judge denied mistrial requests from defense attorneys who claimed jurors were tainted by weeping from the gallery where Arbery's parents sat with Jackson. (More Ahmaud Arbery stories.)

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