Georgia men who killed Ahmaud Arbery want a new trial

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — The only Black person who served on the jury that convicted three white men of murdering Ahmaud Arbery was called to the witness stand Thursday as defense attorneys sought to make a case that their clients deserve a new trial.

The juror, identified in court only as No. 380, was questioned about whether he lied during jury selection about harboring no biases against the men, who in 2020 chased a running Arbery in pickup trucks through their neighborhood before one of them fatally shot the 25-year-old Black man in the street.

Attorneys also questioned the juror about a day he bought a hotdog at a rally promoting justice for Arbery near the Glynn County courthouse where the murder trial was held. The man insisted he took his food and left, and it was unclear whether that happened before or during the trial.

Regardless, he 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 said on the witness stand Thursday. He added: “I wanted to help for the truth to come out, right from wrong.”

Attorneys for Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and their former neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan made their arguments for a new trial before Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley. He was the judge who presided at their 2021 murder trial and sentenced each to life in prison.

Walmsley didn’t rule Thursday. Defense lawyers and prosecutors will have a month or more to file legal briefs summing up their arguments before the judge issues a decision.

Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery Sr., told reporters outside the courthouse he thought the arguments by defense lawyers for a new trial were “very weak.”

“They were throwing everything to the wall, and nothing will stick,” he said.

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 that juror No. 380 had “concealed his bias in favor of the Arbery family” when he was questioned during jury selection. He based the assertion on an interview the man gave to a private investigator in June 2022.

Juror No. 380 became the only Black juror in the murder trial after defense attorneys struck eight other Black panelists as a final jury was being chosen. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that it’s unconstitutional for attorneys to reject potential jurors based solely on race or ethnicity. The defense attorneys insisted they had other reasons.

“I felt like the weight of the whole Black race was on my shoulders,” Donaldson quoted the juror as having told the investigator.

The juror was not asked about that comment during his testimony.

Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski noted the juror had told a defense attorney during jury selection three years ago about coming upon a rally supporting Arbery’s family after visiting a hardware store. The juror said he believed that was the same rally at which he’d bought a hotdog.

“Did you lie to us with any of your answers” during jury selection, Dunikoski asked No. 380.

The man answered: “No.”

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 juror’s impartiality.

Bryan’s lawyer, Rodney Zell, argued that his client’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 pickup trucks to cut off Arbery’s escape were used against all three defendants during the trial.

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.

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