believed what he did. he wanted to follow him, talk to him, stop him, for the police to detain him. don t be fooled by this word arrest. you don t have to announce, you re under arrest. why isn t mr. arbery asking for help? why isn t he calling out, hey, somebody call 911? there s crazy people after me. maybe that s because mr. arbery doesn t want help. turning ahmaud arbery into a victim after the choices that he made does not reflect the reality of what brought ahmaud ark arbery in his khaki shorts, with no socks, to cover his long, dirty toenails. joining me now, cnn legal analyst and criminal defense attorney joey jackson. cnn senior analyst and former prosecutor elie honig.
today, jurors heard two drastically different perspectives on what happened the day arbery died. during closing arguments, prosecutors said the three white men on trial assumed the worst about a 25-year-old black man running in their neighborhood, chased him down, and killed him. in contrast, one of the defense attorneys argued that the men had a duty to catch arbery, whom she described as a frightening burglar with and i quote long, dirty toenails. martin savidge has the latest from georgia. reporter: as the trial reaches its critical final days, protests outside the glenn county courthouse have grown in size and volume. for the first time, armed citizens with semiautomatic weapons were seen patrolling the perimeter of perimeter courthouse grounds, while inside the courthouse, attorneys began making closing arguments. travis mcmichael, his father gregory mcmichael, and william roddy bryan face murder charges and potential life in prison for the killing of 25-year-old jogger ahma
that roddy bryan did not know and could not know that these men were armed until moments before mr. arbery s tragic death. at the time of the shooting, he was some distance back. he was armed only with his cell phone. reporter: greg mcmichael s lawyer focused on depicting arbery as an intruder. turning ahmaud arbery into a victim after the choices that he made does not reflect the reality of what brought ahmaud arbery in his khaki shorts, with no socks, to cover his long, dirty toenails. reporter: arbery s mother, wanda cooper-jones, left the courtroom after this comment. that was just beyond rude. regardless of what kind of toenails he had, what size legs he had, that was still my son. and my son actually was running
leaning into humanizing ahmaud arbery. her focus really remained on the facts and evidence that had been laid out in the case. sara is getting at the defense during closings went right at ahmaud arbery. i want to play the moment sara was talking about right there. turning ahmaud arbery into a victim after the choices he made does not reflect the reality of what brought ahmaud arbery to satilla shores in his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails. bernarda, what did you think that was about? what did you think of the prose prosecution s response today? so her comments, i fund it to be despicable. i found it to be infuriating for her to do victim blaming, and not just victim blaming but
men in their pursuit of arbery, a 25-year-old black man out on a jog. all three of these defendants made assumptions, made assumptions about what was going on that day, and they made their decision to attack ahmaud arbery in their driveways because he was a black man running down the street. the defense countered by putting the blame on arbery casting him as the boogeyman. he was a recurring nighttime intruder, and that is frightening and unsettling. turning ahmaud arbery into a victim after the choices that he made does not reflect the reality of what brought ahmaud arbery to satilla shores in his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails. what was that about with the toenails? let s bring in marilyn mosby and mark o mara now. mark, do you believe the defense has a chance of getting any of the defendants off on some if not all of these charges?