ATLANTA — Georgia lawmakers on Wednesday approved a bill gutting a Civil War-era law that allowed residents to arrest one another, a move championed by critics who said such laws have historically been used by white citizens to justify the killing of African-Americans. Both measures were inspired by the killing last year of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was chased and then gunned down by three white men in a coastal Georgia neighborhood. But the changes to the citizen’s arrest law, a version of which dates to 1863 and has been seen by many as a relic of the Old South and Wild West eras, also comes just days after Georgia Republicans passed a sweeping measure to restrict voting access that Democrats and voting rights groups said unfairly targets voters of color. Republican support to invalidate much of the citizen’s arrest law demonstrates a party keenly interested in combating charges of racism. Mr. Kemp is likely to face off in an electoral rematch next year against Stacey Abrams, the former State House minority leader and a leading critic of restrictive Republican-backed voting laws.

Source: New York Times March 31, 2021 22:19 UTC