Martin Luther King III Says Black Pastors Will Hold a ‘Wall of Prayer’ Outside Arbery Trial Courthouse: ‘Hopefully They Will Convict’

Martin Luther King III told CNN that he will attend the trial of the three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery on Thursday, and responded to defense counsel Kevin Gough’s request to limit Black pastors in the courtroom, confirming that he and other pastors were planning to conduct a “wall of prayer” outside the courthouse to pray for a conviction.

Arbery, a Black man, was shot and killed on February 23, 2020, while he jogged through a residential neighborhood in Brunswick, GA. His death was captured in a viral cell phone video that later surfaced, and the three men indicted in his death are White. Gough represents defendant William “Roddie” Bryan, who recorded the video of Arbery being shot.

Last week, Gough asked the judge to limit the number of Black pastors sitting with Arbery’s family during the trial. “We don’t want any other Black pastors coming in here or Jesse Jackson or whoever was in here sitting with the victim’s family trying to influence the jury in this case,” said Gough.

The judge responded to Gough that the trial was a public space and anyone could attend as long as they complied with the expected decorum of the court. Gough’s remarks drew scrutiny and accusations of racism.

CNN Newsroom hosts Erica Hill and Jim Sciutto introduced a clip of Gough asking the judge to restrict Black pastors in the courtroom, and asked King why he thought that Gough “feels so uncomfortable with faith leaders in the room?”

“Listen, all any of us can do is just speculate,” replied King, calling Gough’s comment “sad” and noting that it was a longstanding tradition in the African-American community for pastors to go to support members of their congregations. “I don’t want to just go to racism automatically. But it certainly seems this statement is racist.”

“The jury has very serious charges to consider here,” said Sciutto, asking if King was concerned that this controversy could be a distraction for them.

King said he was more concerned about the racial makeup of the jury (only one juror is Black and the rest are White), especially considering reports that multiple potential jurors who were struck were Black and the jury pool did not reflect the diversity of the local community.

In the end, though, King said, “the jurors have a job to do and hopefully they’ll do their job and hopefully they will convict these gentlemen.”

Hill mentioned that King and more than 100 other pastors would be joining members of the Arbery family for a “wall of prayer” in front of the Brunswick courthouse. “What is the message that you hope that moment will send?” she asked.

“I hope the message is,” King responded, “first of all, pastors are coming, number one, in peace, encouraging the community to be together.”

He clarified that a conviction wouldn’t be a “victory” but expressed empathy for the Arbery family losing a loved one, because he too had “publicly lost a father and grandmother who were gunned down by assassins,” referring to his father, the famous civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated in 1968, and his paternal grandmother, Alberta King, who was assassinated in 1974.

“The pastors will be praying for a conviction,” King concluded, “be praying for peace, be praying for the actual jurors to do the right thing because I think it would be beyond devastating for there not to be a conviction that looks so clear to many.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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