*The Ahmaud Abery murder trial is turning out to be quite the interesting event.
On Monday, days after an attorney representing one William “Roddie” Bryan called on Black pastors to be banned from the courtroom, in walked the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
A freaked out Kevin Gough, the attorney we’re referring to, then asked Judge Timothy Walmsley to remove the prominent civil rights leader from the gallery.
It was last week, as we reported, that Gough drew criticism when he objected to the Rev. Al Sharpton sitting in on court proceedings with Arbery’s parents.
“We don’t want any more Black pastors coming in here,” Gough said Thursday. He argued having “high-profile members of the African-American community” in the courtroom could pressure or intimidate the jury.
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“In the context of this trial, we object to his presence in the public gallery inside the courtroom,” Gough said. “How many pastors does the Arbery family have? … I don’t know who Reverend Jackson is pastoring here.”
Having Black clergy inside the courtroom, Gough argued, is “no different than bringing in police officers or uniformed prison guards in a small town where a Black man has been accused of assaulting a law enforcement officer or corrections officer.”
At that point he likened the murder trial to an NBA game.
“With all do respect, your honor, the seats in the public gallery of a courtroom are not like courtside seats at a Lakers game,” he said. “There is no reason for these prominent icons in the civil rights movement to be here.”
By the way, nearly a dozen Black clergy members gathered at the Glynn County Courthouse on Monday, and even more are expected later this week after family attorney Ben Crump called for “100 Black pastors” to join him in Brunswick.
Meanwhile, Judge Walmsley denied Gough’s request to have Jackson removed to an adjacent courtroom. He also called Gough’s comments last week “reprehensible,” and denied the defense’s motion for a mistrial.
“Mr. Gough, at this point I’m not exactly sure what you’re doing,” he said, noting that he wasn’t aware Jackson had entered the courtroom until the attorney brought attention to it. “You need to understand your words in this courtroom have an impact on a lot of what’s going on.”
