GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. (WSAV) — The three men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 are returning to a Georgia courthouse for a hearing on their motion for a new trial.
Father and son Travis and Gregory McMichael, plus their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, were scheduled to go before Judge Timothy R. Walmsley at the Glynn County Courthouse on Thursday at 10 a.m.
Attorneys for the three convicted killers are making a range of arguments for a new trial, from a tainted jury to ineffective counsel for one of the men. Judge Walmsley, who was the judge in their 2021 murder trial and handed down their sentences, has 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.
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.
Travis was sentenced to life plus 10 years in prison, his father Gregory to life plus 7 years in prison, and Bryan to 35 years in prison. The McMichaels were not given the possibility for parole, but Bryan was, after he serves 30 years.
But now, Pete Donaldson, an attorney for Travis McMichael, said in a legal filing that he plans to present evidence that the jury’s verdict was tainted by “outside influences” and “extraneous prejudicial information.” The information came to light in a private investigator’s recorded interviews with three jurors in 2022, Donaldson wrote, giving no other details.
Greg McMichael’s lawyer, Jerry Chappell, said he was supporting Donaldson’s effort to question the verdict’s fairness.
Bryan’s lawyer, Rodney Zell, argued in a written motion that Bryan’s trial attorney was ineffective. He noted that Bryan, on his previous lawyer’s advice, had agreed to be interviewed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Zell said Bryan was ill-prepared to speak with investigators and managed to “incriminate himself.”
Zell also wrote that the judge had wrongly prohibited defense attorneys from presenting trial evidence of “prior bad acts” by Arbery. Defense attorneys had sought to use evidence of Arbery’s past run-ins with law enforcement, including two arrests, as well as mental health records to argue that the McMichaels rightly feared that he might be dangerous.
This motion for a new trial comes after the trio requested for the hate crime charges to be thrown out earlier this year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.