ATLANTA — A jury began deliberations Monday in the federal hate-crime trial of three white Georgia men in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, with a prosecutor calling them"vigilantes" fueled by pent-up anger for Black people and defense attorneys portraying them as vigilant citizens concerned about protecting their neighborhood from crime.
Perras scoffed at defense claims that the McMichaels pursued Arbery because they had previously seen him on surveillance video repeatedly trespassing inside a home under construction in their neighborhood. She said the government must prove four elements of the hate crime statute: that there was a threatened use of force, that the defendants tried to willfully injure Arbery, that the crime happened because of race, and that it happened because Arbery was enjoying the use of a public street.
"This case is not about the rightness of the beliefs or whether these beliefs should be punished. You can't use it to judge his character, the case isn't to punish for beliefs even if you think they're wrong," she said. "Ladies and gentlemen, this case is hard, hard first of all because it involves the death of a young man," Balbo told the jury."It was horrific because it shouldn't have happened."
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