Other jurors of note:

Juror #151 has a lot of connections to the players in this case. She knows the current and former district attorneys Keith Higgins, Jackie Johnson, and George Barnhill, all professionally. She says she’s not spoken to any of them about the case. She knows defense attorney Kevin Gough and worked for him when she worked as an administrative assistant to lawyers in the public defenders’ office.

Juror 151 knows Greg McMichael through her work in the system. She knows Roddie Bryan: she used to work with his sister, and years later, he married her brother’s ex-wife. She’s visited them at a vacation home.

She’s gone out with the brother of Bryan’s fiancee. One of Travis McMichael’s closest friends is married to her niece, who might have to testify.

She also knows nearly all of the law enforcement witnesses on the case list.

She says all of these ties would not keep her from being fair and impartial.

She was asked about having mentioned safety concerns? She says she didn’t have any until they “started all the stuff around the courthouse…”

She says, “If I was on the jury, I just don’t want to be bothered, if something doesn’t go the right way…” She says No, she would not feel pressure to return a certain verdict based on those safety concerns.

Juror 151 is asked more about her niece connection: Given her husband is on the witness list and already testified in the bond hearing, do you think you’d be the right juror for this case?

“Now that you put it that way, no,” says #151.

Travis McMichael’s lawyer asked her why she has not talked to any of the many people she knows tied to the case about the case. She says from having worked in the system, she knows not to do that.

“The only thing is, I know the people, and when it comes down to deliberations, I don’t have any problems with the facts of the case, but when it came down to the deliberations because I know the people, I don’t know that I could [deliberate],” says Juror 151. She adds it would bother her and she would have trouble deliberating because of all the relationships involved.

“I’m usually on your side, picking the jury. I’ve never been on this side before [as a potential juror] and I’ve never known the people.”

Bryan’s attorney tried to keep her close.

“You’ve worked in the court system for a long time -- are you used to working with people you know?” She says Yes. “Has it affected your ability to do your job?” She says No.

She wound up being struck.

Juror 205 was qualified. He appears to be a white man and says he wants to serve on the jury. He’s watched a “20/20″ episode about this and says, “Right now to me it’s a tied ball game.” Could he form an independent opinion at trial? “Absolutely…I wouldn’t say I’m stubborn, but when I make a decision, I make it on my own.”

Some of his discussion:

“After 9-11, I lived in Pittsburgh and Flight 94 crashed 70 miles from my house… There was two farmers, they saw two missiles go into the plane, they put up a memorial …” He was asked, So what do you believe? The cockpit recorder or the farmers? “To this day, I don’t have an opinion on it.”

He says, “After the election, I quit watching the news, I watch 20/20, 48 Hours, Dr. Phil.” Why? These networks, one says this, one says that…I think, the election, Trump got robbed. I know that for a fact.”

Gregory McMichael’s attorney Laura Hogue asks him to clarify what he wrote in questionnaire: “He shouldn’t have been shot.” Do you still believe that?

“After watching the 20/20 special, I’m more down the middle.” He watched the special after getting the jury summons.

The man says he recognizes Kevin Gough from 20/20: “You were interviewed alone…you’re famous.”

He also talked about visiting Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

He says there is no reason he can’t be fair or impartial and is not looking for notoriety, not trying to “write a book or something.”

Juror 209 is a young Black man who was in high school during the same time as Ahmaud Arbery. He says the 25-year-old’s death “stung me when I heard about it.” He believes the criminal justice system is unfair to people of color, and believes everybody deserves a fair trial.

He was qualified over objections from Bryan’s defense.

5:30 PM: Juror #124 is struck for cause—a fixed opinion.

She appears to be a Black woman, and tells lawyers she has not seen the video, would make the State prove its case, and consider defenses of self-defense or citizen’s arrest.

Greg McMichael’s attorney asks Juror 124 to tell them about her family’s conversations about this.

“Really nothing to say. They’re guilty,” she says.

“Did you say there’s nothing to say because they’re guilty?” asks Laura Hogue.

“Yes, they’re guilty to me.”

“So your family believes they’re guilty?”

“Yes,” she laughs. “What can I say, they’re guilty.”

“What do you base that on?”

“They’re guilty.”

Why didn’t you want to see the video?

“It’s terrible,” says #124.

“Having raised a Black man in this community, did that make this more troubling to you?”

“Yes.”

“How can you be fair and impartial if you’ve already made up your mind?” asks Hogue.

“I don’t know, just try to be fair,” Juror 124 replies.

“Is there anything that could wipe that opinion from your mind?” No.

“So it’s fixed, these men are guilty?”

“Yes.”

3:30 PM: Juror #199 says on her questionnaire that the defendants “hunted him down and killed him like an animal.” She appears to be a Black woman. She’s seen clips of the video.

She agrees with the State that people can get things wrong, and says she would consider the defenses as a trial juror. No. 199 notes that “They were not arrested in a timely manner,” but there’s nothing about the delay that would keep her from giving them a fair trial.

Travis McMichael attorney Jason Sheffield asks her, “Do you recall posting ‘Happy Birthday Ahmaud!!’ regarding the arrest of the defendants?”

A: I don’t remember.

Q: Do you remember posting, “Now it’s time for justice”?

A: I don’t remember.

He asks her about a post involving some officer’s text messages. Sheffield wants to show the potential juror the Facebook account to make sure it’s her. Prosecution objects to showing her the officer text messages since she says she doesn’t remember. Sheffield is allowed to take a laptop to the potential juror and ask her about certain clips from social media.

Q: Does that look like it’s associated with her page? Juror #199 says Yes, those are things that I shared. The Judge asks for clarification on if she posted it, or if it was a post she shared.

It was a post already shared from a news page or something like that. She says she reposted it and added a little sentence about it.

Judge: “The intricacies of social media these days.”

Sheffield: Why were you saying those things in the posts?

Potential Juror: It was a big story that hit this city, it was on my timeline, and I thought it needed to be shared.

She has a young son and it hit her personally as a Black mother with a Black child, so it hits close to home.

Sheffield: In what way other than that you are Black? Prosecution objects: asked and answered.

Sheffield: In what other way?

Potential juror: There is no other way.

Sheffield asks if the case is race-related.

A: “The whole case is about racism because it’s black versus white, or white versus black.”

Says if there is evidence of a citizens arrest or self defense she would consider it, but says as she sits here today she doesn’t see any evidence of a citizen’s arrest.

She says protests, demonstrations, and signs have had no impact on her.

She changed her name on Facebook a few times. Kevin Gough asks why. She says for many reasons. Gough says, “If there’s more than one, we want to know them all.”

A: It’s all my name but sometimes it’s my first, my middle or my last.

Q: Did it occur to you to update the court with that information?

Prosecution objects.

Judge: The court didn’t put anything in the questionnaire saying they were obligated to continue updating the questionnaire after it was submitted.

Gough, sounding frustrated, says countless hours are spent using the info on the questionnaires…suggests they should have been updated.

Judge interrupts him to say no one asked her about updates.

Q: What’s your church denomination? Do you know what I mean by denomination?

A: Pentecostal.

Greg McMichael attorney Laura Hogue asks more about that. Juror #19 says she changes her name a lot. Says the rule on Facebook is that it can only change every 60 days. She changes it every couple of months, can’t really say why she does that.

Q: Did it have anything to do with you receiving a summons in this case?

A: No, not at all.

No further questions.

After the early-afternoon break, Kevin Gough makes a motion. A couple of days ago, he was suggesting that people who read news or social media comments from an Arbery family attorney, in which Lee Merritt told people to “remember the phrase, ‘I can be fair,’” would not come in and be candid about their real thoughts in this jury selection. Now, he’s attacking alleged lack of truthfulness again.

“We’ve got juror cards and multi-page long questionnaires, and jurors were sworn before their examination in voir dire, but apparently, they were not told they can’t make false statements,” says Gough. He says they have to get on the record that the jury cards and questionnaire are truthful or at least sworn and subject to penalty of perjury, “Otherwise we have a real problem.”

He also charges that the prosecution has “amassed large dossiers of information” with its deep resources, and is hiding it from the defense.

Defense attorney Laura Hogue says they will ask to strike Juror 199.

Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski counters that it’s all public information. With this last juror (#199), my 27-year-old assistant couldn’t find her Facebook page, but Gough was able to find it. We don’t have anything over and above them, she says.

Judge Walmsley says the questionnaire itself provides counsel with a significant amount of information that they can use to gather information during voir dire. The judge has no problem with the question Sheffield suggests about if the answers are up to date.

Judge Walmsley cautions the attorneys about their tone during questioning, says the tone at times has gotten close to aggressive.

“Some of the questioning is coming across as cross-examination,” he says.

These are just regular people, coming in for jury duty, he reminds them.

“Don’t assume the worst of intentions in others, just like the Court doesn’t assume the worst of intentions of the lawyers.”

2:30 PM: There’s a would-be juror who has never seen the video. This is Juror #195, who appears to be a white woman; asked her age, she cracks, “Too old!”

She says she does have a negative opinion of Travis McMichael, but there is no reason she can’t sit on this jury and be fair and impartial to give the defendants a fair trial. She doesn’t watch a lot of news. Juror #195 considers jury duty part of her civic duty, and wants to serve.

“I donate blood, and I can sit on a jury.”

Travis McMichael attorney Bob Rubin questions Juror #195. He wants to know how she got a negative opinion of Travis McMichael.

Potential juror struggles to answer this, says she’s heard the news some. Finally says, Look, I live in Glynn County, there’s buildings/murals painted...I’m having trouble answering the question.

Rubin asks her if she believes there are there two sides.

“Well. the other person isn’t here,” says #195. “I think I could look at if fairly.”

She adds, “Seems to me it was race-related. They were white, it was a predominately white neighborhood, and he was Black.”

2:15 PM: A young Black woman is struck for cause after saying her opinion of the defendants’ guilt can’t be changed. Juror #135 emphatically says she knows they are guilty from what she saw on the video.

Juror #162 appears to be a young Black man in his 20s. His stepmother knows Ahmaud Arbery’s mother and knew Ahmaud himself. He didn’t know him.

Says he watched the video as many times as he scrolled past it: “It kept coming up.”

He agrees the news media doesn’t have all the information in a case, and may get it wrong.

He tells the State, “I think there’s only one right answer: ‘Guilty.’”

ADA Linda Dunikoski asks if it’s a fixed opinion; he says there is no changing his mind.

With her back to the potential juror, Dunikoski gives a thumbs-up towards defense. No questions for this juror from the defense.

Judge tells him to rejoin the panel. As he exits, he flashes a wide smile at the court officer, who holds the door open for him on his way out.

2:02 PM: “He’s guilty, I saw the video.” That’s the word from Juror #184, who appears to be a white man and says he didn’t research the matter further, nor did race or color play into his view of what happened.

“He’s a fellow man, and that’s all I needed to see,” said Juror #184.

The prosecution asks more questions to see if he would make his decision on what evidence is presented in court, including listening to the defenses.

No. 184: “You could change my mind [meaning defense case], but it would be very difficult and the chances would be very slim.”

After more questions, he later says, “I’ll listen to everybody. Everyone has a side to their story.”

He agrees that Black people and white people aren’t treated the same by criminal justice system.

“I watch a lot of YouTube and listen to podcasts,” he says. He says he rarely sees an interaction of police brutality when it’s a white man.

Juror #184 believes Arbery’s death was a hate crime.

Dunikoski: Do you know that hate crime wasn’t a law in Georgia then?

Defense objects to question: calls for the witness to state the law.

Judge – Sustained.

The defense declines to question him.

1:36 PM: First juror questioned after lunch is a woman who said during group questioning she knows a number of Glynn County Police officers. Juror #181 appears to be a white woman. She identified two people on a witness list and says one is a very good friend she talks to about once a month, but wouldn’t give that person’s testimony more weight. She was asked about raising her hand when the judge asked about opinions on guilt or innocence.

“I just feel that it was unwarranted,” she said. She wrote on her questionnaire that that Ahmaud Arbery was “shot in cold blood.” She explains, that’s because Arbery was unarmed. She says instructed by the judge, she could be fair and impartial and consider legally-stated defenses to the shooting.

She knows several cops because of a relative having worked in law enforcement.

Juror #181 was asked, “What does ‘Justice for Ahmaud’ mean to you?”

“That he gets justice,” said No. 181.

“What does the word ‘justice’ mean to you?” said prosecutor Linda Dunikoski.

“That we get a fair trial,” she said.

Juror #181 thinks the ousted district attorney, Jackie Johnson, handled the #AhmaudArbery shooting case inappropriately, noting “nothing was done” until the video of the chase was released. She says concern about her privacy and safety would affect her ability to render a verdict. She tells lawyers that Yes, if her identity is protected during trial, that’d alleviate her concern.

12:30 PM: After an early lunch, everyone’s gathered back in the courtroom. They briefly questioned three individual jurors this morning. One man was struck for a medical hardship. A Black woman with years of law enforcement experience was also struck after saying that her years of training led her to lean toward thinking the defendants are guilty and that the evidence would have to be “astronomical” to change her mind.

“Having been a police officer for 10 years and the training we received, even as a police officer when I was around, we could not shoot a fleeing felon,” said Juror #180.

A third juror, who’s not yet reached the birthday where it’s legal for her to buy alcohol, asked to be excused due to her age.

“I just feel like I’m young and don’t want to judge anyone’s life,” said Juror 178.

The juror replied “I don’t know” and “I’m not sure” to a lot of questions from Travis McMichael attorney Bob Rubin: What interest did she have in the case? How did she come to think the defendants “have some guilt?” How did she feel when she watched the video?

Do you have an opinion on whether race played a role here? “A little bit.” What role? “I don’t know.” Her voice, already soft, trailed off when she was asked to talk about that.

“You don’t know or you don’t wanna say?” asked Travis McMichael attorney Bob Rubin.

“Don’t wanna say,” she said.

No. 178 told lawyers despite her age, she believes she could make her voice heard and not be intimidated by sitting on a jury with older people. But the defense was ready to let her out of jury duty.

Greg McMichael attorney Laura Hogue motioned to dismiss (seconded by William Bryan attorney Kevin Gough). Hogue said 178 appears to be terrified, shaking and unable to express how she formed opinions about a number of questions.

“Your Honor, this is a murder case, and our defendants are facing the most serious penalties possible,” Laura Hogue said.

Cobb County Assistant District Attorney Linda Dunikoski countered, “Being young has absolutely nothing to do with decision-making ability. Mr. Gough indicated she is nervous, but that has nothing to do with her ability to listen to evidence and follow the law of the Court.”

Judge Walmsley kept her in the jury pool.

10:30 AM: Several of the would-be jurors in today’s panel know one or two of the McMichaels and their relatives, and know Ahmaud Arbery’s parents. There was a brief recess between the panel voir dire, and now the individual questioning in the courtroom is underway.

9:20 AM: Prosecutor Paul Camarillo is doing the State’s panel voir dire.

9:05 AM: The court clerk tells a fellow reporter that there are 19 people on today’s jury panel. Eighteen people are present. She says they can hear members of the clerk’s office calling people on their phones asking where they are. It’s raining in Brunswick today.

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