Ahmaud Arbery killers all convicted

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Ahmaud Arbery killers all convicted

Post by Chap »

Ahmaud Arbery verdict: three men found guilty of murdering Black man as he jogged
Travis McMicheal, Greg McMichael and William ‘Roddie’ Bryan all face the possibility of life in prison


Who knew that jogging while black was not a capital crime?

What is the world coming to???
The three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery have been found guilty of murder, following his 2020 shooting death in south Georgia, which led to a wave of racial justice protest and a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US.

Travis McMicheal, his father, Greg McMichael, and their neighbour William “Roddie” Bryan were each convicted for murdering Arbery, who was unarmed, after pursuing him in February last year and claiming, without evidence, he had been involved in a spate of burglaries in their neighborhood.

On Wednesday the jury returned unanimous decisions, convicted Travis McMichael, who opened fire on Arbery three times with a pump action shotgun, on all nine counts, including charges of malice and felony murder.

Greg McMichael was convicted on eight of the nine counts including felony murder, and Bryan, who pursued Arbery in a separate vehicle and was not carrying a firearm, was convicted on six of nine counts, also including the charge of felony murder.

The three men each stood before the judge, Timothy Walmsley, who read the verdicts to the courtroom before remanding the defendants into custody.

None of the men expressed emotions as the verdicts were read. Marcus Arbery, Ahmaud’s father, was heard shouting in triumph in the courtroom as the first guilty verdict was read, while Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, began weeping as the last guilty verdict was heard.

Speaking outside the courthouse in late autumn sun, Cooper-Jones addressed reporters and supporters.

“It’s been a long fight, it’s been a hard fight, but God is good,” she said. “To tell you the truth I never saw this day in 2020, I did not think this day would come … Thank you, thank you for those who marched. Thank you to those who prayed.”

She continued: “He [Ahmaud Arbery] will now rest in peace.”

In a statement the civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, representing Marcus Arbery, said: “After nearly two years of pain, suffering and wondering if Ahmaud’s killers would be held to account, the Arbery family finally has some justice. Nothing will bring back Ahmaud, but his family will have some peace knowing the men who killed him will remain behind bars and can never inflict their brand of evil on another innocent soul.”

He added: “While today is not one for celebration, it is one for reflection.”

Sentencing will be scheduled for a later date and all three face the possibility of life in prison.

The verdict was announced after two weeks of testimony and evidence in the closely watched trial, during which the McMichaels had claimed the shooting was an act of self-defense and that they had attempted to enact a citizen’s arrest.

Travis McMichael was the only one of the three men to take the stand during trial, and had argued he shot Arbery with his shotgun in self-defense. The defendants said they had tried to enact a citizen’s arrest on Arbery, an argument disputed by the prosecution, who said they had no probable cause to detain Arbery, a frequent jogger in the neighborhood.

Although the case became an emblem of racial injustice and bias in the US criminal justice system to many, prosecutors ultimately left the issue of racism outside the case. In closing arguments, lead prosecutor Linda Dunikoski made just a passing reference to the allegations of racial bias, stating: “they [the defendants] made their decision to attack Ahmaud Arbery in their driveways, because he was a Black man running down the street.”

But allegations of racism and intentional bias surrounded the court case throughout.

Lawyers acting for the Arbery family had expressed significant concerns at the trial’s outset after a jury of 11 white members and one Black member was selected. Defense lawyers had struck all but one potential Black juror from the jury pool, leading judge Timothy Walmsley to declare there appeared to be “intentional discrimination” during the selection process.

Defense attorneys repeatedly requested a mistrial due to activists congregating outside the Glynn county courthouse and also requested that the judge limit the number of Black pastors in the public viewing space, claiming the pastors were intimidating to the jury.

In closing, lawyers for each defendant also sought to attack Arbery himself, claiming his decisions had ultimately led to the fatal shooting.

Laura Hogue, representing Greg McMichael, described Arbery during closing arguments as a “recurring night-time intruder” whose presence was “frightening and unsettling”, prompting instant criticism from Arbery’s parents, who said the defense had deliberately mischaracterized their son.
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Doctor CamNC4Me
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Re: Ahmaud Arbery killers all convicted

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Chap wrote:
Wed Nov 24, 2021 7:52 pm
jogging
Wait. He was jogging? Like. Exercising? I thought he was damned around on a construction site?

Whatever. I’m glad to see justice served. I don’t believe those men had the right to deputize themselves, make an unlawful citizens arrest, and of course kill a young man. I think any parallels made between this shooting and Rittenhouse don’t translate in any meaningful way - and of course we’re talking about a different state with different statutes.

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Re: Ahmaud Arbery killers all convicted

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So, I’m poking around to get a bit smarter on the case and the one thing I’ve noticed, which is really weird, but the video surveillance of Ahmaud Arbrey (AA) in the construction site shows him wearing some either untied or ill-fitting sneakers and then in some screen caps where’s he’s engaged in a tussle with one of the men it appears he’s wearing boots. Like. Those are boots. Wtf happened to his shoes?

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Re: Ahmaud Arbery killers all convicted

Post by canpakes »

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:
Wed Nov 24, 2021 9:01 pm
So, I’m poking around to get a bit smarter on the case and the one thing I’ve noticed, which is really weird, but the video surveillance of Ahmaud Arbrey (AA) in the construction site shows him wearing some either untied or ill-fitting sneakers and then in some screen caps where’s he’s engaged in a tussle with one of the men it appears he’s wearing boots. Like. Those are boots. Wtf happened to his shoes?

- Doc

Got a still? I’m not seeing boots, only thin ankles in athletic shoes.



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Re: Ahmaud Arbery killers all convicted

Post by Doctor CamNC4Me »

canpakes wrote:
Wed Nov 24, 2021 9:09 pm
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:
Wed Nov 24, 2021 9:01 pm
So, I’m poking around to get a bit smarter on the case and the one thing I’ve noticed, which is really weird, but the video surveillance of Ahmaud Arbrey (AA) in the construction site shows him wearing some either untied or ill-fitting sneakers and then in some screen caps where’s he’s engaged in a tussle with one of the men it appears he’s wearing boots. Like. Those are boots. Wtf happened to his shoes?

- Doc

Got a still? I’m not seeing boots, only thin ankles in athletic shoes.



Image
Huh. Those certainly look like the sneakers he was wearing from the construction site video. Here’s a still of the “boots”:

Image

I think you’re probably more accurate. I’m looking at other stills from the fight and those seem more consistent with sneakers.

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Hugh Nibley claimed he bumped into Adolf Hitler, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Gertrude Stein, and the Grand Duke Vladimir Romanoff. Dishonesty is baked into Mormonism.
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Re: Ahmaud Arbery killers all convicted

Post by Chap »

I find this discussion a little strange. Here is a good outline of the evidence and arguments at trial, which may set things in perspective.

What We Know About the Shooting Death of Ahmaud Arbery

Mr. Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was chased by white residents of a South Georgia neighborhood. They were found guilty on murder charges.

He was killed while running near his home.

Mr. Arbery was running in Satilla Shores when a man standing in his front yard saw him go by, according to a police report. The man, Gregory McMichael, said he thought Mr. Arbery looked like a man suspected in several break-ins in the area and called to Travis McMichael, his son.

According to the police report, the men grabbed a .357 Magnum handgun and a shotgun, got into a pickup truck and chased Mr. Arbery, trying unsuccessfully to cut him off. A third man was also involved in the pursuit, according to the report and other documents.

In a recording of a 911 call, which appears to have been made moments before the chase began, a neighbor told a dispatcher that a Black man was inside a house that was under construction on the McMichaels’ block.
During the chase, the McMichaels yelled, “Stop, stop, we want to talk to you,” according to Gregory McMichael’s account in the police report. They then pulled up to Mr. Arbery, and Travis McMichael got out of the truck with the shotgun.

Gregory McMichael “stated the unidentified male began to violently attack Travis and the two men then started fighting over the shotgun at which point Travis fired a shot and then a second later there was a second shot,” the report states.

The police report and other documents do not indicate that Mr. Arbery was armed.

Gregory McMichael is a former Glynn County police officer and a former investigator with the local district attorney’s office.

More than two months passed without an arrest.

Shortly after the shooting, the prosecutor for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, Jackie Johnson, recused herself because Gregory McMichael had worked in her office.

In Brunswick, on the eve of Thanksgiving, residents are waiting on the verdict.

The case was sent to George E. Barnhill, the district attorney in Waycross, Ga., who later recused himself from the case after Mr. Arbery’s mother argued that he had a conflict because his son also worked for the Brunswick district attorney.

But before he relinquished the case, Mr. Barnhill wrote a letter to the Glynn County Police Department. In the letter, he argued that there was not sufficient probable cause to arrest Mr. Arbery’s pursuers.

Mr. Barnhill noted that the McMichaels were legally carrying their firearms under Georgia’s open-carry law. He said they had been within their rights to pursue what he called “a burglary suspect” and cited a state law that says, “A private person may arrest an offender if the offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge.”

Mr. Barnhill also argued that if Mr. Arbery attacked Travis McMichael, Mr. McMichael was “allowed to use deadly force to protect himself” under Georgia law.

Anger over the killing and the lack of consequences for the McMichaels grew when a graphic video surfaced, showing the shooting on a suburban road.

The video shows a struggle before three shotgun blasts.

The cellphone video, shot by Mr. Bryan, is about a half-minute long. It shows Mr. Arbery running along a shaded two-lane residential road when he comes upon a white truck, with Travis McMichael standing beside its open driver’s side door with a shotgun. Greg McMichael, his father, is in the bed of the pickup with a handgun.

Mr. Arbery runs around the truck and disappears briefly from view. Muffled shouting can be heard before Mr. Arbery emerges, fighting with Travis McMichael outside the truck as three shotgun blasts echo.
Mr. Arbery tries to run but staggers and falls to the pavement after a few steps.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published another video that shows a man walking into a house under construction in the neighborhood and eventually running out of it.

The shooting.

On Feb. 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was shot and killed after being chased by three white men while jogging near his home on the outskirts of Brunswick, Ga. The slaying of Mr. Arbery was captured in a graphic video that was widely viewed by the public.
The victim. Mr. Arbery was a former high school football standout and an avid jogger. At the time of his death, he was living with his mother outside the small coastal city in Southern Georgia.

The fallout.

The release of the video of the shooting sparked nationwide protests and prompted Georgia lawmakers to make significant changes to the state’s criminal law, including passage of the state’s first hate crimes statute.

The suspects.

Three white men — Gregory McMichael, 67, his 35-year-old son, Travis McMichael, and their neighbor William Bryan, 52 — stood accused of murdering Mr. Arbery. They told authorities they suspected Mr. Arbery of committing a series of break-ins.

The verdict.

On Nov. 24, a jury found the three defendants guilty of murder and other charges. The men, who face sentences of up to life in prison, have also been indicted on separate federal charges and are expected to stand trial for those in February.

S. Lee Merritt, a lawyer for Mr. Arbery’s family, said in a statement that the second video, which appeared to be from a home-surveillance camera, is “consistent with the evidence already known to us.”

“Ahmaud Arbery was out for a jog,” Mr. Merritt said. “He stopped by a property under construction where he engaged in no illegal activity and remained for only a brief period. Ahmaud did not take anything from the construction site.”

In an April 7, 2020, email to the office of Chris Carr, the Georgia attorney general, Mr. Barnhill, the prosecutor, said that his office had “video of Arbery burglarizing a home immediately preceding the chase and confrontation.”

But Mr. Merritt said, in his statement, that no felony had been committed by Mr. Arbery when he was on the property.

In December, the Atlanta news station WSB obtained police body camera footage from when officers first arrived on Feb. 23, including the conversations they had immediately after the incident. The conversations show that many officers on the scene knew of Gregory McMichael’s background.

In September, Ms. Johnson, who had been voted out of her job as chief prosecutor for the area, was indicted on a charge of violating her oath by showing “favor and affection” to Gregory McMichael, the former investigator in her office, and on a charge of obstruction for telling two police officers on the day of the shooting not to arrest Travis McMichael.

Mr. Arbery’s defenders say he was just getting some exercise.

Mr. Arbery’s defenders believe he was probably jogging through the neighborhood for a workout. Michael J. Moore, an Atlanta lawyer and a former federal prosecutor, reviewed Mr. Barnhill’s letter to the Glynn County police, as well as the initial police report. In an email, Mr. Moore called Mr. Barnhill’s opinion “flawed.”

In his view, Mr. Moore said, the McMichaels appeared to be the aggressors, and such aggressors were not justified in using force under Georgia’s self-defense laws. “The law does not allow a group of people to form an armed posse and chase down an unarmed person who they believe might have possibly been the perpetrator of a past crime,” Mr. Moore wrote.

The question of self-defense was a central one in the murder trial. Travis McMichael’s lawyers argued that their client had no choice but to use force when Mr. Arbery engaged with him in a fight.

Mr. Merritt has called it “an asinine defense.”

The victim who ran away from the threat, he said, before being cornered and shot to death “while desperately trying to disarm his assailant, cannot be the aggressor.”

It was Mr. Arbery, he said, who was engaging in self-defense.

“There is no other way to see this,” he said.

What were the main arguments at the trial?

In her closing statement, the lead prosecutor, Linda Dunikoski, said the defendants had launched an attack on Mr. Arbery “because he was a Black man running down the street.” In doing so, she raised the question, barely voiced during the trial, of whether race had been an issue.

“What’s Mr. Arbery doing?” Ms. Dunikoski said. “He runs away from them. And runs away from them. And runs away from them.”

The defense countered that the men were carrying out a legal citizen’s arrest in an area that had been gripped by crime concerns in the months leading up to February 2020, when they chased Mr. Arbery through their neighborhood. Laura D. Hogue, a lawyer for one of the defendants, said that Mr. Arbery had become “a recurring nighttime intruder — and that is frightening, and unsettling.”

The argument that the men were not justified in their pursuit, and are therefore guilty of other crimes, including aggravated assault and false imprisonment, was a pillar of Ms. Dunikoski’s closing statement.

Jason Sheffield, a lawyer for Travis McMichael, suggested that Mr. Arbery’s presence in the house constituted burglary — a felony — and that his client therefore was justified in trying to detain him.

In his closing argument, Kevin Gough, the lawyer for Mr. Bryan, distanced his client from the McMichaels. He said that Mr. Bryan did not know and could not have known that the other two men were armed or that Mr. Arbery would be shot.
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Re: Ahmaud Arbery killers all convicted

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Numerous media commenters had claimed in advance that Arbery and his family would not receive justice because the racial makeup of the jury was disproportionately white, with only one black juror on the panel. However, after the trial, advocates for the Artery family were jubilant about the decision and thanked the jury for considering the case carefully and impartially.

Though the trial became racially and politically charged, it was not so initially; the Arbery family’s attorney, Lee Merritt, spoke frequently with Breitbart News and acknowledged that then-President Donald Trump had been helpful in the case.
https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2021/11 ... der-trial/
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Re: Ahmaud Arbery killers all convicted

Post by Chap »

It is indeed reassuring to know that in this case a white dominated jury actually convicted the killers of a black man, even though they would have had to try rather hard not to convict them in this particular case.

But all the same, they did convict the killers.
Maksutov:
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Re: Ahmaud Arbery killers all convicted

Post by Doctor CamNC4Me »

Someone can tell me if I’m off, but I think this was a pretty much open and shut case. This is what I got after spending an hour or two sifting through the intertubes:

1. AA didn’t commit a felony. Trespassing isn’t a felony.

2. AA committed zero crimes in the presence of the three dummies.

3. The three amigos had no right or cause to initiate a citizens arrest. I don’t think they witnessed the trespassing.

4. They had no right to chase the kid around the neighborhood for 5 mins. That’s a long time to be chased by guys with guns. AA had to be terrified.

5. AA ran away, for 5 mins, before being cornered by the dummies.

6. AA wasn’t armed.

7. AA wasn’t carrying a weapon of any kind.

8. AA was stupid for trying to grab the son’s gun, but the dummies were even more stupid for bringing the gun to bear to begin with. I believe AA panicked, rightly so after being chased by some armed bubbas in a truck.

9. The guy who recorded the whole thing was guilty of ‘murder by association’, which I don’t really understand, but that’s the law in GA.

There are lessons to be learned from this, but few will.

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Re: Ahmaud Arbery killers all convicted

Post by K Graham »

ajax18 wrote:
Wed Nov 24, 2021 10:03 pm
Numerous media commenters had claimed in advance that Arbery and his family would not receive justice because the racial makeup of the jury was disproportionately white, with only one black juror on the panel. However, after the trial, advocates for the Artery family were jubilant about the decision and thanked the jury for considering the case carefully and impartially.

Though the trial became racially and politically charged, it was not so initially; the Arbery family’s attorney, Lee Merritt, spoke frequently with Breitbart News and acknowledged that then-President Donald Trump had been helpful in the case.
https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2021/11 ... der-trial/

Why do you keep repeating this source when it blatantly lies constantly like this? I've never heard anyone in the media say he wouldn't get justice because of race. You're just really upset that an almost all white jury didn't acquit your fellow Nazis.
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