Ahmaud Arbery's killers deny racist motives in appeals
Three white men serving prison sentences in the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery are asking an appeals court to throw out their federal hate crime convictions, with two of them arguing their histories of making racist comments don't prove they targeted Arbery because he was Black. “Every crime committed against an African American by a man who has used racist language in the past is not a hate crime,” defense attorney Pete Theodocion said in an appellate brief written on behalf of defendant William “Roddie” Bryan. Arbery, 25, was chased by pickup trucks and fatally shot in the streets of a Georgia subdivision outside the port city of Brunswick on Feb. 23, 2020.
news.yahoo.comAhmaud Arbery pursuer seeks leniency in hate crimes sentence
The white man who initiated the neighborhood chase that resulted in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery is asking a federal judge to show leniency when he's sentenced next week for a federal hate crime conviction. While Greg McMichael deserves “a substantial period of incarceration,” his defense attorney said in a legal filing, he should be spared a life sentence — though he has already been sentenced to life without parole on a separate murder conviction. McMichael also wants the judge to transfer him to a federal prison so that he avoids serving time for Arbery's murder in Georgia's state prison system, which can't ensure his safety from attacks by other inmates, the lawyer said.
news.yahoo.comAfter Arbery killing, 16 calls between DA, shooter's dad
One of the men convicted of murder in the street chase and fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery spoke with his former boss, the local district attorney, several times by phone in the days and weeks following the 2020 killing, according to a court document filed Thursday. Investigators found that the day after the shooting, then-Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson placed a phone call to Greg McMichael, a retired investigator for her office who initiated the pursuit that ended in Arbery's death. The call lasted more than nine minutes, prosecutors in a misconduct case against Johnson said in the legal filing.
news.yahoo.comGreg, Travis McMichael asks district court for judgement of acquittal in federal trial
Greg and Travis McMichael, the white father and son who were convicted of committing a racially motivated hate crime in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, have asked a federal judge to overrule the jury’s guilty verdicts.
‘I see his execution in my mind over and over’: Family shares grief as Arbery’s killers sentenced to life
Before a judge determines Friday whether the three men convicted in the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery will be given the possibility of parole for their mandatory life sentences, Arbery’s family shared with the court how his murder has impacted their lives.
Their own words may have doomed men who killed Ahmaud Arbery
The video of Ahmaud Arbery's shotgun death was a shocking piece of evidence that suddenly brought the Black man's killing into the national consciousness. The citizen's arrest law, repealed by lawmakers after Arbery's death, requires a person must see or have immediate knowledge of a crime being committed or have reasonable suspicion that someone is fleeing a felony in order to justify a citizen’s arrest.
news.yahoo.comHow a shaky cellphone video changed the course of the Ahmaud Arbery murder case
The convictions of Travis McMichael, his father, Greg McMichael, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan on Wednesday have raised recollections of the beginning of the case, when police let the men walk free and two prosecutors did not press charges.
washingtonpost.comDefense attorney: McMichaels ‘honestly believe that what they were doing was the right thing’
After about 10 hours of deliberations, jurors on Wednesday convicted the three white men charged in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, the Black man who was chased and fatally shot while running through their Georgia neighborhood.
Black pastors lead hundreds in rally to support Ahmaud Arbery’s family in Glynn County
As the man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery returned to the witness stand Thursday morning, more than 100 faith leaders from around the country planned to rally outside the Glynn County Courthouse in support of Arbery’s family.
Could controversial comments by defense attorney in Arbery case be part of a bigger legal strategy?
The defense attorney for one of the three men charged in the death of Ahmaud Arbery is again being scrutinized for his concern that the presence of Black pastors in the courtroom could influence the jury.
Defendant’s lawyer apologizes in court for remarks about Black pastors
Attorney Kevin Gough, who represents one of three Glynn County men on trial for murder in the February 2020 death of Ahmaud Arbery, addressed the court Friday, apologizing for comments he made the day before about “Black pastors” in the courtroom.
Officer: Ahmaud Arbery would have received trespass warning
A police officer testified Friday he planned to give Ahmaud Arbery a trespass warning for repeatedly entering a home under construction before the 25-year-old Black man was chased and shot dead by neighbors who spotted him running from the property. Glynn County police Officer Robert Rash said he spoke several times to the unfinished home's owner, who sent him videos of Arbery at the site between Oct. 25 2019 and Feb. 23, 2020 — the day Arbery was killed at the end of a five-minute chase by white men in pickup trucks.
news.yahoo.comDefense attorney in Arbery slaying trial tells judge: ‘We don’t want any more Black pastors coming in here’
Defense attorneys on Thursday told Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley that high-profile pastors such as the Rev. Al Sharpton in the courtroom on behalf of the family of Ahmaud Arbery are intimidating and an unconscious attempt to pressure the jury.
Defense attorney in Ahmaud Arbery killing trial: ‘We don’t want any more Black pastors’ in the courtroom
Defense attorney Kevin Cough, who represents one of the white men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot while jogging in February 2020, objected to the Rev. Al Sharpton sitting in the courtroom with the victim's family, saying, “We don’t want any more Black pastors coming in here.”
news.yahoo.comCPR-Trained Officer Who Responded First to Scene of Ahmaud Arbery Shooting Testifies He Didn’t Render Aid Because He ‘Didn’t Have Adequate Medical Training’
A former Glynn County police officer who was first to respond to the scene after Ahmaud Arbery was gunned down in the Satilla Shores neighborhood […]
news.yahoo.comTestimony: Ahmaud Arbery slaying defendant changed his story
Jurors were shown graphic, closeup police photos Monday of the gunshot wounds that killed Ahmaud Arbery, while the first officer to find the 25-year-old Black man bleeding in the road testified he did not try to render medical aid because it would not have been safe.
One Black juror, 11 whites to hear trial over Arbery slaying
A Georgia judge ruled Wednesday that he’ll seat one Black juror and 11 whites to decide the trial of the men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery, despite prosecutors’ objections that several Black potential jurors were cut because of their race.
EXPLAINER: Why Arbery slaying video will be 'star witness'
It's hard to overstate the importance of the video recording of Ahmaud Arbery's death and the evidentiary weight that the short, sometimes shaky clip will carry at the trial of the three men who chased and shot him. “You've got a cellphone video as your star witness,” said Jeffrey Abramson, a law professor at the University of Texas, “and a relatively small community where virtually everyone has seen or heard about the video.” In fact, without the video, it's possible there would have been no criminal charges, and thus no trial, in the 25-year-old Black man's slaying on Feb. 23, 2020.
news.yahoo.comEx-prosecutor charged in Ahmaud Arbery case booked at jail
The former prosecutor charged with misconduct for her handling of the Ahmaud Arbery case was booked at a Georgia jail Wednesday and released. Former Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson turned herself in Wednesday morning at the Glynn County jail, county Undersheriff Ron Corbett said. Jail records show she was released on her own recognizance, meaning she did not have to pay a cash bond.
news.yahoo.comThe Racist Old Laws Justifying White-on-Black Killings Are Still Here
AP Photo/Lewis LevineThe lawyers for the white men who admit, and were captured on video, killing Ahmaud Arbery, have filed papers declaring their plan to “rely heavily upon Georgia’s… citizen’s arrest statute” as a defense strategy. That is, they will argue during the October murder trial that Greg McMichael, a former police officer, and his son Travis were attempting a perfectly legal citizen’s arrest of Arbery because they decided he was up to no good—a supposition steeped in white presumptio
news.yahoo.comMen who chased, killed Ahmaud Arbery due in federal court
Three Georgia men were scheduled to appear before a federal judge Tuesday on federal hate crime charges in the slaying of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was chased and shot after being spotted running in the defendants' neighborhood. Arraignments before U.S. Magistrate Judge Benjamin Cheesbro were set for Tuesday afternoon as federal prosecutors moved ahead with their case, even with state murder charges still pending against the same defendants. A Georgia judge has set a trial in the state's case for October and will hear pretrial motions later this week.
news.yahoo.com