On March 31st, Georgia passed a law that allowed residents to arrest one another. This law aimed at reducing crime levels within Georgia state. However, some critics said that this law could result in racial discrimination, whereby African Americans are the ones who might end up being affected (Fausset, 2021). This is because the law was believed to justify the killing of African Americans by whites historically. This law is a revision of the law that was there, the citizen’s arrest law, 1863. From this case, virtue ethics were not applied. This law led to racial differences among the residents. However, allowing residents to arrest each other was not considered by both parties, republicans, and democrats (Singh, 2021). Republicans felt they had the power to enforce the bill and make it a law. This meant that the democrats were not fully considered. The amendment of this law was inspired by the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man suspected of some property crimes in the neighborhood (Fausset, Two Weapons, a Chase, a Killing and No Charges, 2021). After the death of Arbery, a case was brought forward. When it was first heard, the prosecutor found no need to arrest the three suspects. However, after the case went viral and received nationwide attention, the prosecution arrested the suspects and sentenced them to murder, false imprisonment, and other charges (Bowman, 2021). As a result, legal formalism failed to apply during the first prosecution but was sought after the indictment. The defendant’s lawyer argued that he expected the citizen’s law arrest to help them with the trial since it formed the defense for the case as the law existed during the shooting. Unfortunately, it failed to apply in this case, and the victim’s family got their justice (Balsamo & Bynum, 2021). Reforms were made to the law to avoid such a situation recurring.
References
Balsamo, M., & Bynum, R. (2021, April 29). US indicts 3 on hate crime charges in death of Ahmaud Arbery. AP . Retrieved from https://apnews.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-georgia-hate-crimes-crime-government-and-politics-ef101bfbf96f3ee921c29c6dcf89e7eb
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Bowman, E. (2021, April 28). 3 Men Indicted On Federal Hate Crime Charges In Ahmaud Arbery Killing. NPR . Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2021/04/28/991722733/3-men-indicted-on-federal-hate-crime-charges-in-ahmaud-arbery-killing
Fausset, R. (2021, March 31). Georgia to Weaken Citizen’s Arrest Law Cited in Ahmaud Arbery’s Death. The New York Times . Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/us/georgia-citizens-arrest-law.html
Fausset, R. (2021, February 26). Two Weapons, a Chase, a Killing and No Charges. The New York Times . Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/26/us/ahmed-arbery-shooting-georgia.html
Singh, M. (2021, April 1). Georgia overhauls 'citizen's arrest' law after Ahmaud Arbery killing. The Guardian . Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/31/georgia-citizens-arrest-law-ahmaud-arbery
