CHICAGO (CBS) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson says he will be in court in Georgia next week at the trial of three White men accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed Black man.
One of their defense attorneys is objecting to having more than one Arbery family pastor in the courtroom and singled out Rev. Jackson.
“There’s only so many pastors they can have. If they have Pastor Al Sharpton right now, then that’s fine. That’s it. We don’t want any more Black pastors coming in here or Jesse Jackson, or whoever was in here earlier this week, sitting with the victim’s family trying to influence a jury in this case.”
Video shows Arbery, who was 25, was jogging in February of 2020 near his mother’s home when he was chased and confronted by the three suspects and killed by one of them.
The men told authorities they suspected him of committing a series of break-ins in their neighborhood.
In respnose to the defense attorney’s objection, the judge said the he was not going “to blanketly exclude members of the public” from his his courtroom.