A group of Georgia lawmakers called Friday for the Legislature to quickly scrap the state’s 19th-century citizen arrest law, which one prosecutor cited in a controversial legal opinion justifying the pursuit and killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
Democratic Rep. Carl Gilliard of Savannah told a news conference Friday the proposal will be introduced when the state House and Senate reconvene next week following a three-month recess forced by the coronavirus pandemic. Two Republicans have agreed to co-sponsor the bill.
Arbery was fatally shot Feb. 23 after a white father and son armed themselves and pursued the 25-year-old black man as he ran through their neighborhood outside the port city of Brunswick. Greg McMichael told police he suspected Arbery had committed prior break-ins in the area. More than two months passed before McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and a neighbor who joined the chase, William “Roddie” Bryan Jr., were charged with felony murder.
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