arguments, the defense went after arbery s actions and his character. they refer to video taken of arbery wondering inside a home construction site months before he was killed. he was a recurring nighttime intruder. one defense attorney went after the dead 25-year-old s appearance. his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails. reporter: her comments caused gasps in the court and his mother rushed out in horror. the prosecution calling out the move to disparage a victim. malign the victim, it s the victim s fault. i know you re not going to buy into that. it s offensive. reporter: speaking of offensive, that is exactly how arbery s mother described it. she said it was rude that they mentioned his toenails, but did
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to the family but we cannot allow anything to disrupt justice in this case. reporter: prosecutors will have two hours for their rebuttal-closing arguments tomorrow morning. then, there will be the charging of the jury. and then, the case will be delivered into the jury s hands for them to begin to make some kind of judgment. that s about midday tuesday. then, there s wednesday and of course thursday s thanksgiving. many wonder what the impact of that kind of timetable could have on a jury s potential decision. john? martin savidge, thank you so much for being there for us. ahmaud arbery s mother, wanda cooper jones, joins us now along with her attorney lee merritt. ms. cooper jones, i thank you once again for being with us tonight. i have heard defense lawyers, prosecutors over the last several hours say it was just out of line, what the defense attorney said about your son. the quote, long, dirty toenails. for you, as a mother, it
especially after a comment made by one of the defense attorneys concerning ahmaud arbery s appearance. she talked about him being in the neighborhood in khakis, in shoes with no socks, and having long, dirty toenails. that caused gasps in the court as you might imagine. she is referencing a dead man, and ahmaud arbery s mother could not get out of court quick enough. she was filled with emotion. sara sidner, cnn, brunswick, georgia. for more on all of this, we want to bring in cnn legal analyst areva martin. thanks so much for joining us. hi, rosemary. so jury deliberations begin in just a few hours from now in the ahmaud arbery murder trial. just yesterday, we heard shocking closing arguments from one of the defense lawyers that prompted outrage when she talked about arbery s toenails in an effort to portray the unarmed black man as a criminal. what was your reaction to what she said, and how should the judge have responded to that?
provoking the attack. very powerful arguments by the prosecution. what really appears to be carrying the day in my view. i want to stick with you for one more second, joey, because i want to talk about what ryan young just brought up and that is what sounded to many people as just an unvarnished, racist trope, that one of the defense attorneys brought up in terms of ahmaud. so let me play what she said yesterday. turning ahmaud arbery into a victim after the choices that he made does not reflect the reality of what brought ahmaud arbery to shores in his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails. joey, that was so jarring to so many people to hear. was that surprising to you to hear that? you know, it was deplorable, and quite frankly, it was surprising, and here s why i say