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closing arguments are beginning right now in the federal hate crimes trial for three white men who chased down and killed ahmaud arbery. the three men were convicted last year of murdering arbery as he jogged through their south georgia neighborhood. nadia ramirez joins us. what can we expect to hear today? reporter: this is really the last chances for the defense and the prosecution to drive home their message to the jury. inside the courtroom right now is lee mcmichael, the mother of travis, wife of gregory, back in the courtroom today. we see as the supporters of ahmaud arbery who will be in the courtroom every day since jury selection, in the courtroom behind me. they ll be eagerly awaiting to
supporting them throughout closing arguments, sharing nods and smiles, reaching out to touch their hands. on the other side of the courtroom, ahmaud arbery s mother and father and aunt and other supporters who became emotional during the trial as they wait for that verdict. listen to ahmaud arbery s aunt talk about this moment, right now, as they wait. it is hard. it s hard. you can t sleep. you can t hardly eat. until all of this is over with, our family, her family, it is a rough ride. reporter: it is a rough ride and this is their second go around, right, because they already had the state trial where all three men were convicted, found guilty of murdering ahmaud arbery. they all face life in prison. this trial, bianna, they tell me is still very important to their family because they want to send a message to the entire world that if you re racist, you act on that, you commit a hate crime, you will be held accountable and tomorrow marks two years since the murder of
research and leave your notes inside the courthouse until this morning when you come back together and you can deliberate all together all at once. now, the last thing that the jurors were able to hear were the closing arguments from the defense and the prosecution. their last chance to pitch to them why they believe they should acquit or commit these three defendants to being guilty on all of these charges. the prosecution says this is all about race, that the men targeted and killed ahmaud arbery because he was black, they equated his black skin to being a criminal. the defense says they were trying to protect their neighborhood, they believed that ahmaud arbery was committing crimes in their neighborhood and trying to do a citizen s arrest, when he resisted, they shot him in self-defense. so the jury now has to decide which way to go, what they will do on all of these charges. meanwhile, the families are waiting anxiously for the verdict. on one side we saw lee mcmichael, the mother
don t believe. what that means is you re the one who decides whether travis mcmichael is telling you the truth or lying to you. let s talk about some of the defense witnesses. beasley, what did she do when she got off the stand? she walked over here and waved at them and walked off the stand. you all saw that. annabel beasley, dean mcmichael. sue lawrence. who is she? boy, team mcmichael. even after the shooting, they re going out on the boat with greg and lee mcmichael. they re still hanging out with them. okay. team mcmichael. mark perez. team mcmichael. up until february 11th. then what did she it will you? her husband had had it with larry english not calling the police, had had it with helping out larry english, he wasn t going to do it anymore because this was not cool. why was it not cool? because diego perez went inside