Veronica Waters
@MissVWaters
·
48m
Laura Hogue closing argument: My father worked almost 50 years as an insurance salesman not because he liked it, b/c he didn't. He wanted his kids to grow up in a neighborhood safe and secure.
LH: Band-Aids for skinned knees, July 4th parties, crocheted baby blankets, casseroles when we lost a loved one. He worked hard to provide those for the people he loved. Larry English worked hard to provide for his family in a neighborhood just like that.
LH: It's the same life we all have the right to seek. Safety, security, comfort of people we care about. We work hard for our stuff. It's ours and no one has the right to take it. We should never have to fear intruders. A good neighborhood is always policing itself
LH: I suggest what the State said in reverse. Start with Count 1, malice murder, then take the rest in 1 big chunk. Greg McMichael pulled no trigger. How could they seek a conviction for malice murder as he stood in the back of a truck as the fatal shots were fired?
LH: Malice murder requires intent to take the life of another human being. The State'll be asking you to find that Greg McMichael encouraged his son to take the life of #AhmaudArbery cause that's what he wanted to do for no reason other than to see that young man die.
LH: To do it right there in front of his eyes b/c the guy keeps breaking in down the street. That's what you need to find Greg McMichael guilty of malice murder. That's why I say start there dispatch of it with a not guilty verdict.
LH: Counts 2-9 comes down to if Greg McMichael was authorized by law to try to execute citizen's arrest, detain #AhmaudArbery for police, keep peace and safety in neighborhood, they were within the law to hold him for police.
LH: How else does one hold an individual who does not want to be arrested for the police? You have to contain him. Not false imprison him--contain him. Possibly hold him at gunpoint without firing a shot. Reasonable, measured force to make him stay.
LH: If they were in within the law to detain #AhmaudArbery for police, then Travis McMichael had every single right to defend himself when Arbery inexplicably took that right turn at the truck seeking to disarm Travis
LH: Is he the person responsible for stealing English's equipment? We don't know. But can anyone reasonably believe #AhmaudArbery was just doing a looky-loo on those nights in what's been described as a home drenched in absolute darkness?
link:
https://twitter.com/MissVWaters