Individuals linked to Ahmaud Arbery's homicide in Georgia seek a retrial.
Legal representatives for Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William "Roddie" Bryan initiated multiple reasons for requesting a retrial, including a possibly biased jury and inadequate counsel for one of the men. Judge Timothy Walmsley, who presided over their 2021 murder trial and handed out penalties, reserved up to two days for evaluating their legal appeals.
The McMichaels, along with Bryan, armed up and carried guns in a pickup truck to chase after Arbery, a 25-year-old Black male, who ran past their household on February 23, 2020, in a suburban neighborhood outside Brunswick's port city. Bryan joined the pursuit in his vehicle, recording video of Travis McMichael firing multiple shotgun blasts close-range at Arbery, who ultimately succumbed to his wounds on the street.
Donaldson, Travis McMichael's attorney, disclosed his intention to bring forth evidence suggesting one of the trial jurors concealed a prejudice in favor of the Arbery family during jury selection by maintaining that he was loyal to them.
In private investigations conducted in 2022, juror No. 30 confessed to feeling immense pressure being the only Black juror and relayed that he believed all the eyes of the Black community were on him.
Judge Walmsley accepted the juror as a potential witness, with limitations, preventing any discussions regarding jury deliberations from being brought up in court since they are legally confidential.
Authorities did not make any arrests concerning Arbery's murder till more than two months had passed, when Bryan's video footage was leaked online and passed the case to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Arbery's untimely death amplified the national dialogue on racial injustice in criminal courts, along with the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
The defense argued during the Georgia trial that the armed pursuit was justified because the McMichaels and Bryan suspected Arbery of being a thief and intending to detain him for the police. Travis McMichael testified that he fired in self-defense when Arbery assaulted him physically. However, authorities found no evidence suggesting that Arbery had stolen anything or engaged in other illegal activities in the area.
Greg McMichael's lawyer, Jerry Chappell, backed Donaldson's push to contest the verdict's fairness. Bryan's lawyer, Rodney Zell, argued that ineffectiveness hampered Bryan's trial attorney. Zell noted that Bryan consented to being interrogated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation upon his previous lawyer's advice, leading to self-incrimination.
Zell called upon Bryan's trial attorney, Kevin Gough, as a witness. Gough testified that Bryan was not yet facing any criminal charges during those GBI interviews, and his objective was to get authorities to categorize Bryan as a witness instead of a suspect.
In response to Bryan's claim that he intentionally slowed down to help the McMichaels and forced Arbery off the road, Gough remarked that Bryan was concerned about his previous statements to the GBI possibly seeming unfavorable later on.
Zell further added that the judge had unjustly prohibited the presentation of "prior bad acts" evidence concerning Arbery during the trial. Defense attorneys sought to introduce evidence of Arbery's past encounters with the law and his mental health records to show that the McMichaels had reason to fear his potential hostility.
Judge Walmsley ruled before the trial that this evidence irrelevant to the murder charge since none of the defendants had previously encountered Arbery.
Requesting a new trial is the first action taken by the three defendants to contest their murder convictions. Walmsley handed down life sentences without parole for both McMichaels, while offering Bryan the possibility of parole.
Following their federal murder convictions during a separate trial in February 2022, the men were convicted of federal hate crimes. The jury concluded that the trio targeted Arbery because of his race. Prosecutors presented approximately two dozen social media posts and text messages, as well as testament from witnesses, that displayed the trio's use of racial slurs or derogatory language towards Black people.
The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals listened to arguments from attorneys seeking to reverse the hate crimes verdict in March 2023, with a decision on the federal appeal ongoing.
The legal team for us [The McMichaels and Bryan] is advocating for a retrial due to potential bias in the jury and inadequate counsel for one of us.In the retrial, our attorneys are planning to present evidence suggesting a prejudiced juror during jury selection.
