Three white men serving life in prison for murder after chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 returned to court Thursday to ask a judge for a new trial.
Attorneys for Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and their former neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan began making a range of arguments for a new trial, from a tainted jury to ineffective counsel for one of the men. Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley, who was the judge in their 2021 murder trial and handed down their sentences, set aside up to two days to hear their legal motions.
The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and jumped in a pickup truck to chase Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, after they saw him run past their house on Feb. 23, 2020, in a subdivision outside the port city of Brunswick. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael firing shotgun blasts at close range into Arbery, who fell fatally wounded in the street.
Travis McMichael's attorney, Pete Donaldson, told the judge Thursday he plans to present testimony showing one of the trial jurors "concealed his bias in favor of the Arbery family" when he was questioned during jury selection.
Donaldson said the man, identified in court only as juror No. 380, was interviewed by a private investigator working for the defense team in 2022. He said the juror said he prayed after the final jury was selected and he was the only Black member of the panel.
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"I felt like the weight of the whole Black race was on my shoulders," Donaldson quoted the juror as saying.
Walmsley said he would allow the juror to testify, with limitations. The judge said the man would be prohibited from discussing any jury deliberations, which are shielded as private by law.
No arrests were made in Arbery's killing for more than two months, until Bryan's cellphone video leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from police. Arbery's death became part of a broader reckoning on racial injustice in the criminal legal system along with the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.
Defense attorneys argued during the Georgia trial 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 testified that he opened fire in self-defense when Arbery attacked with his fists. Police found no evidence Arbery had stolen anything or committed other crimes in the neighborhood.
Greg McMichael's lawyer, Jerry Chappell, said he was supporting Donaldson's effort to question the verdict's fairness.
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Bryan's lawyer, Rodney Zell, argued that his client's trial attorney was ineffective, particularly when he allowed 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 pickup trucks to cut off Arbery's escape were used against all three defendants during the trial.
Kevin Gough, Bryan's trial attorney, said on the witness stand Thursday that he made "a gamble in cooperating with the GBI" in hopes that authorities would declare Bryan a witness and not a suspect. He said some of Bryan's statements to investigators "might in retrospect have not have looked so good."
"There was never a legally binding agreement for Mr. Bryan's cooperation," Gough said. "And Mr. Bryan was very aware of that."
Seeking a new trial marks a first step by the three defendants in challenging their murder convictions. Walmsley sentenced both McMichaels to life in prison without parole, while giving Bryan a chance of parole.
The men were also convicted of federal hate crimes in U.S. District Court after a separate trial in February 2022. The jury concluded the trio targeted Arbery because he was Black. Prosecutors presented two dozen social media posts and text messages, as well as witness testimony, that showed all three men used racist slurs or otherwise disparaged Black people.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in March from attorneys asking the court to overturn the hate crimes verdict. A decision on the federal appeals is still pending.
