JUDY WOODRUFF: One of three men
on trial for fatally shooting
Ahmaud Arbery, who was Black,
took the stand today in his own defense.
Travis McMichael, who is white, testified
a day after the prosecution rested in a
murder trial that is racially
charged and is being closely
watched around the country.
William Brangham has the latest.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: McMichael is
being charged with murder and other
crimes, along with two other men.
The accused say they were attempting
a citizen's arrest on Arbery,
suspecting him of robbing a
nearby house. Prosecutors allege the men
illegally chased down and killed Arbery.
On the stand today, McMichael
described the moment he shot Arbery,
claiming it was done in self-defense:
TRAVIS MCMICHAEL, Defendant: I shot him.
JASON SHEFFIELD, Attorney
For Travis McMichael: Why?
TRAVIS MCMICHAEL: He had my gun. He
struck me. It was obvious that he was --
it was obvious that he was
attacking me, that if he would
have gotten the shotgun from me,
then it was -- this is a
life-or-death situation.
And I'm going to have to stop
him from doing this. So I shot.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We should say
the prosecution has disputed that
characterization of the events.
Joining me now is Margaret Coker.
She's editor in chief of The Current,
which is a nonprofit nonpartisan
news organization in Southeastern
Georgia. She has been covering the trial
in Brunswick since it started last month.
Margaret Coker, great to
have you on the "NewsHour."
So, we just heard there from
Travis McMichael. Can you tell us
a little bit more about what he
is claiming on the witness stand
that happened in this fatal moment?
MARGARET COKER, Editor in
Chief, The Current: Yes.
Travis McMichael is, of course, the
younger of the two McMichaels. He and
his father are the co-defendants, along
with neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan.
The actions that they took that
day are now under the microscope.
Travis McMichael has always within
straightforward, saying that he killed
Ahmaud Arbery. The jury is going
to decide that was murder or
whether that was self-defense.
And Travis McMichael took the stand today
to try, as he said, put things in his own
words and his own context, what was going
through his mind when he decided to grab
his gun along with his father and chase
Ahmaud Arbery through their mostly white
neighborhood on the outskirts of Brunswick
in this small corner of Southeast Georgia.
Now, what Travis is trying to do is make
himself more human. He is a person that
has been characterized by the special
agents who decided to finally arrest him
and his father and their
co-defendants, he's been depicted
as someone who is a white racist,
a white supremacist, someone who
had a Confederate Flag vanity
license plate, someone who
might have actually used the
N-word when he stood over
Ahmaud Arbery after he shot him.
These are the kinds of depictions that
his defense lawyers say are nonsense,
that his family say is nonsense.
And so he's been trying to
put a human face on the events
of that tragic day, February 23, 2020.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The defense
also argued this week that
-- they moved for a mistrial,
and they also said that the --
all the charges should be dropped.
What is the basis on which
they're making that argument?
MARGARET COKER: They say clearly
that nothing illegal happened
that day. They have always
put forward that their clients
have done nothing wrong, that they
acted both within Georgia law,
which at the time allowed for
a citizen's arrest, and also
that they acted in self-defense.
They say the prosecution
hasn't hit that bar, even
to show that those crimes were
committed. The judge, of course,
has denied all of those motions.
And so here we have the defendants
finally taking the stand.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And what do
you make of -- the prosecution
rested its case earlier this week.
What do you make of the case?
Have they, in your judgment, hit
the bar for a murder conviction?
MARGARET COKER: Yes, Georgia
has a different murder statute
than other states. There is no
different degrees of murder
here. It's felony murder or
malice murder or manslaughter.
And so the prosecution doesn't
have to prove intent. She doesn't
have to prove that someone was
a racist when they chased Ahmaud
Arbery down the street. All she
has to prove is that, in the heat
of the moment, that there were
bad assumptions made, that
there were two different -- two
different sets of opinions
happening on the street that day,
and they willfully killed someone.
The citizen's arrest law that's
been repealed, that was --
there's very clear language that
people trying to detain a person
had to have seen a felony happen
or have reasonable suspicion
that that happened. Both of the
McMichaels and Bryan have said they
didn't see what had happened that day.
They chased Arbery for bad assumptions.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right,
Margaret Coker, editor in chief
of The Current, thank you so much.
MARGARET COKER: Thank you.