BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — The verdict in the Ahmaud Arbery trial is getting a lot of reaction nationwide. We talked to local lawyers to hear their thoughts.

Going into today, legal analysts were unsure of how this decision would go with a predominantly white jury.

Attorney and former federal prosecutor Raymond Johnson said the prosecution did a good job of building their case and sticking to it. He said the defense tried to bait the prosecution with arguments, that if taken, could have potentially impacted the outcome.

“If they had gone down those rabbit holes that the defense set, and there were several dozen of those, I think at that point in time the prosecution probably would have given them credibility to the defense in their arguments and you would have had a different result,” Johnson said.

Lawyer Eric Guster said he’s also pleased with the ruling.

“Hopefully people will look at this and think instead of trying to chase this guy down and actually kill him if I want police to get involved, call 911 and let the police officers handle it. They took things into their own hands,” said Guster.

The defense built their arguments around the citizen’s arrest law. The state of Georgia did end up changing that law during the course of this trial, saying it was outdated and unnecessary in this day and age.