Three white men serving life sentences for murder after chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 appeared in court Thursday to ask a judge for a new trial.
Lawyers for Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and their former neighbor William “Roddy” Bryan are preparing for a new trial on everything from jury taint to incompetent lawyers for one of the men. He makes various claims. Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley, who presided over and handed down the sentence in the 2021 murder trial, granted up to two days to hear their legal claims.
On February 23, 2020, the McMichaels saw Arbery drive past their home in a subdivision on the outskirts of the port city of Brunswick, then armed themselves with a gun and jumped into their pickup truck to chase Arbery, a 25-year-old black man. Ta. Bryan joined the pursuit in his truck and recorded on his cell phone footage of Travis McMichael firing a shotgun at point-blank range at Arbery, who was fatally wounded on the road.
No arrests were made in Arbery's murder for more than two months, until Bryan's cellphone video was leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from police. Arbery's death, along with the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, became part of a broader condemnation of racial injustice in the criminal legal system.
At the Georgia trial, defense attorneys argued that the armed pursuit was justified because the McMichaels and Bryans suspected Arbery of being a thief and tried to detain him from police. Travis McMichael testified that he fired in self-defense when Arbery attacked him with his fist. Police found no evidence that Arbery had stolen anything or committed any other crimes in the neighborhood.
Travis McMichael's attorney, Pete Donaldson, said in court papers that he plans to present evidence showing the jury's verdict was tainted by “outside influences” and “irrelevant prejudicial information.” . The information was revealed in recorded interviews conducted by a private investigator with three jurors in 2022, Donaldson wrote, but gave no other details.
Greg McMichael's attorney, Jerry Chappell, said he supports Donaldson's efforts to question the fairness of the verdict.
Brian's attorney, Rodney Zell, argued in a written motion that Brian's trial attorneys were incompetent. He noted that Bryan agreed to be interviewed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on the advice of his previous attorney. Zell said Bryan wasn't ready to talk to investigators and managed to “incriminate himself.”
Zell also wrote that the judge unfairly barred defense attorneys from presenting trial evidence of “prior egregious conduct” by Arbery. The defense argued that the McMichaels had reason to fear that Arbery might be dangerous, using evidence of Arbery's past run-ins with law enforcement, including two arrests, and his mental health records. I was trying.
Walmsley ruled before trial that such evidence about Arbery's character was irrelevant to the murder case because none of the defendants knew Arbery before the deadly pursuit.
Seeking a new trial is the first step for the three defendants to challenge their murder convictions. Walmsley sentenced the McMichaels to life in prison without parole and gave Brian a chance at parole.
The men were also convicted of federal hate crimes in federal district court following a separate trial in February 2022. The jury concluded that the trio targeted Arbery because he was black. Prosecutors presented 20 social media posts, text messages and witness statements showing all three used racial slurs and belittled Black people.
In March, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments from lawyers asking the court to overturn hate crime convictions. Judgment on the federal appeal is still pending.
