Jonathan Allen

BRUNSWICK GA (Reuters) – A jury is expected to gather on Wednesday for the murder trial in which three white men chased Ahmaud ARbery and fatally shot him. Ahmaud, a young Black male, was running in a predominantly-white neighborhood of Georgia’s Glynn County.

The questioning of scores of possible jurors took more than 2 weeks after the trial started in Glyn County Superior Court at Brunswick, a small coastal city (NYSE:), Oct. 18.

One issue that is common in high-profile cases, which often include widely seen footage of the encounter, has slowed down the process: Many potential jurors drawn from the County have informed the court that they have seen Arbery’s viral video and made up their mind as to whether Gregory McMichael’s son Travis McMichael or their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan are guilty.

They pleaded guilty not to murder, assault, and false imprisonment charges. They claimed they tried to arrest Arbery using the citizen’s arrest law of the state. This was repealed in response to Bryan’s cell phone video that captured the murder. The 25-year old unarmed man was being chased by the police because they believed he was involved in a burglary.

Glynn county is home to just 85,000 people. Many potential jurors claim they have known Arbery, or that they know any of the defendants.

Kevin Gough was a Bryan lawyer and said that this is “the most difficult jury selection” he’d ever seen, including federal death penalty cases. He tried to call a possible juror back for more questioning, after learning she’d posted dance videos to the TikTok app in which she expressed her sorrow at Arbery’s passing.

Sometimes Judge Timothy Walmsley expressed his frustration at the slow pace of jury selection. Gough was allowed to interview the potential juror again, which led to her dismissal. Gough then asked for an extra 60 minutes of counsel time to confer with the other potential jurors.

Judge said, “We will try to choose a jury this morning.”