Georgia men who killed Ahmaud Arbery want a new trial

Nov 7, 2024 Story by: Editor

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — The sole Black juror who served on the panel that convicted three white men for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery took the witness stand Thursday as defense attorneys argued that their clients should receive a new trial .

Identified only as Juror No. 380, the man was questioned about whether he had been dishonest during jury selection about having no biases against the defendants, who in 2020 chased Arbery through their neighborhood in pickup trucks before one of them shot the 25-year-old Black man. The juror was also asked about a hotdog he purchased at a rally supporting justice for Arbery, which was held near the Glynn County courthouse during the trial. The juror stated that he had bought the food and left immediately, but it remained unclear whether this occurred before or during the trial.

Regardless, the juror denied misleading the judge and attorneys about his ability to serve impartially during jury selection in October 2021.

“I felt sorry for the family. After court started, I felt sorry for both sides,” the juror testified. “I wanted to help for the truth to come out, right from wrong.”

Defense attorneys for Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan presented their arguments for a new trial before Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley, who had presided over their 2021 murder trial and sentenced each of them to life in prison.

Judge Walmsley did not issue a ruling on Thursday. Both defense and prosecution teams will have over a month to submit legal briefs before he makes a decision.

Outside the courthouse, Arbery's father, Marcus Arbery Sr., told reporters that the defense’s arguments for a new trial were "very weak." He added, “They were throwing everything to the wall, and nothing will stick.”

On February 23, 2020, the McMichaels armed themselves and pursued Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, after seeing him run past their home in a subdivision outside Brunswick. Bryan joined the chase in his truck, filming Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery with a shotgun in the street.

During the trial, defense attorney Pete Donaldson argued that Juror No. 380 had concealed his bias in favor of the Arbery family during jury selection, citing an interview the juror gave to a private investigator in June 2022. The juror had become the only Black member of the jury after defense attorneys struck eight other Black potential jurors during the jury selection process. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to reject jurors based solely on race or ethnicity, though the defense insisted it had other reasons for their decisions.

“I felt like the weight of the whole Black race was on my shoulders,” Donaldson quoted the juror as saying in the interview with the investigator. This statement was not addressed during the juror’s testimony.

Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski reminded the court that during jury selection, the juror had acknowledged attending a rally supporting Arbery's family after visiting a hardware store. He believed that was the same rally where he had bought the hotdog. When asked if he had lied during jury selection, Dunikoski inquired, "Did you lie to us with any of your answers?" The juror responded, “No.”

Arbery's death, which initially went unpunished for over two months until the video of his killing was leaked online, became a focal point in the national conversation about racial injustice, alongside the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

In the Georgia trial, the defense argued that the armed pursuit was justified because the McMichaels and Bryan suspected Arbery was a thief and sought to detain him for police. Travis McMichael claimed he opened fire in self-defense after Arbery allegedly attacked him. Police found no evidence linking Arbery to any crimes in the neighborhood.

Greg McMichael's attorney, Jerry Chappell , supported Donaldson’s effort to question the juror’s impartiality, while Bryan’s lawyer, Rodney Zell , argued that Bryan’s trial attorney was ineffective, particularly for allowing Bryan to be interviewed twice by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation before his arrest. Bryan's voluntary statements about how he and the McMichaels maneuvered their trucks to corner Arbery were used against all three men during the trial.

The defense’s request for a new trial is the first step in challenging the murder convictions. Both McMichaels were sentenced to life in prison without parole, while Bryan received the possibility of parole.

In addition to the state murder convictions, the three men were found guilty of federal hate crimes in February 2022 after a separate trial. The jury determined that they had targeted Arbery because of his race, presenting evidence of racist slurs and derogatory remarks made by the defendants. In March, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments from attorneys seeking to overturn the hate crimes verdict. A decision on that appeal is still pending. Source: AP News