ATLANTA (AP) — When a defense attorney in the trial of three men charged in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery called for Black pastors to be barred from the courtroom, shock and outrage rippled across the country. But for people familiar with his courtroom style, it came as no surprise.
A former top public defender whose firing five years ago was condemned by the local NAACP chapter, Kevin Gough is known in legal circles for pushing the envelope if he thinks it will benefit his client.
“I’m entirely not shocked at all by what everybody’s been shocked about. It’s just classic Kevin Gough,” said Wes Wolfe, who covered Gough as a courts reporter for The Brunswick News from 2016 to 2020.
Gough is not above creating a spectacle, Wolfe said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It doesn’t seem to matter to him that it rubs people the wrong way, and it doesn’t seem to bother him that judges get irritated,” Wolfe said.