Here's What You Need To Know About the Trial of the Arbery Murder Defendants
Three white Georgia men stand accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, after they suspected him of committing a series of break-ins in their neighborhood outside of the coastal city of Brunswick in south Georgia in February 2020.
The trial of Gregory McMichael; his son, Travis McMichael; and their neighbor William Bryan began in early November, and lawyers were expected to make their closing statements Monday. All three men face possible life sentences.
The killing was captured on video, helping to make it among the most high-profile cases with civil rights overtones in the United States. The trial has played out at the same time as the case in Kenosha, Wisconsin, involving Kyle Rittenhouse, who last week was found not guilty of homicide and other charges after fatally shooting two men and wounding another amid protests and rioting.
Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times
Who was Ahmaud Arbery?
Arbery was a former high school football standout who was living with his mother outside Brunswick. He had spent a little time in college but seemed to drift in his 20s, testing out various careers and working on his rapping skills. He also had a mental illness that caused him to have auditory hallucinations.
Friends and family said he liked to stay in shape. He was an avid jogger who was often seen running in and around his neighborhood.
The issues
The defense has argued that the accused men — who spotted Arbery running through their community, pursued him in two trucks and then cornered him — were making a lawful citizen’s arrest. They have argued that Travis McMichael shot Arbery because Arbery attacked him.
The state has argued that the defendants chased Arbery based on flimsy assumptions about his presence in their suburban neighborhood, Satilla Shores. Travis McMichael testified last week that he shot Arbery after Arbery grabbed his gun; a prosecutor pointed out that in McMichael’s initial police statement he had said he could not remember if that had happened.
Before the trial, prosecutors signaled that they would tell the jury that the defendants’ decisions were based on racial animus; but the jury heard little talk of race for most of the proceedings.
A neighborhood on edge
The defendants and other neighbors have described Satilla Shores as a community on edge after a series of burglaries and property crime. Gregory McMichael said that when he saw Arbery running there, he thought he looked like a man suspected in several break-ins. Arbery had been spotted on security camera footage several times at a house under construction. No evidence was produced that he had ever taken any property from the site.
Hate crime laws
Arbery’s death led Georgia to change state law in two significant ways. First, legislators gutted a Civil War-era statute that allowed citizens to arrest one another under certain circumstances and when the police were not present. Second, lawmakers passed a hate crimes law, allowing for extra penalties for people who commit crimes against others based on their race, gender, sexual orientation or other identities.
The defendants have claimed they are not guilty based in part on the former citizen’s arrest law. They were not charged under the new hate crimes law, but all three were indicted under the federal hate crimes statute earlier this year. Their trial in that case is set for February. — RICHARD FAUSSET
The charges
The indictment handed up by the grand jury in Glynn County lists nine criminal counts against each of the three defendants in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. For each count, they are charged individually and as “parties concerned in the commission of a crime.”
Taken together, the charges provide a number of different ways that the defendants, Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William Bryan, could wind up facing life in prison if they are convicted. All have pleaded not guilty.
Here are the charges in the order listed in the indictment:
— Count 1: Malice murder
This crime is defined in Georgia law as causing a person’s death with deliberate intention, without considerable provocation, and “where all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart.” It is punishable by death, or by life imprisonment with or without possibility of parole.
— Counts 2, 3, 4 and 5: Felony murder
This charge applies when a death is caused in the course of committing another felony, “irrespective of malice” — in other words, whether or not the killing was intentional and unprovoked.
The other felonies in this case are listed in Counts 6 through 9 of the indictment; one count of felony murder is linked to each. If prosecutors prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants committed one or more of those crimes and also caused Arbery’s death in the process, the basis would be laid for a conviction for felony murder.
Like malice murder, felony murder is punishable by death, or by life imprisonment with or without possibility of parole.
— Count 6: Aggravated assault
One way Georgia law defines this crime is as an assault using a deadly weapon. This count charges the three men with attacking Arbery with a 12-gauge shotgun. It is punishable by imprisonment of one to 20 years.
— Count 7: Aggravated assault
Another way Georgia law defines this crime is as an assault using “any object, device, or instrument which, when used offensively against a person, is likely to or actually does result in serious bodily injury.” This count charges the defendants with using two pickup trucks to assault Arbery. It is punishable by imprisonment of one to 20 years.
— Count 8: False imprisonment
This charge applies when a person without legal authority “arrests, confines, or detains” another person “in violation of the personal liberty” of that person. Specifically, the defendants are charged with using their pickup trucks to chase, confine and detain Arbery “without legal authority.”
False imprisonment is punishable by one to 10 years in prison.
— Count 9: Criminal attempt to commit a felony
Georgia law defines criminal attempt as performing “any act which constitutes a substantial step” toward the intentional commission of a crime — in this case, the false imprisonment charged in Count 8. A defendant can be convicted either of completing a particular crime or of attempting it, but not both.
Because false imprisonment is a felony, attempting it is also a felony, punishable by half the attempted crime’s maximum sentence: in this case, one to five years in prison. — PATRICK J. LYONS
Who are the defendants?
The three men accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery are Gregory McMichael, 65; his 35-year-old son, Travis McMichael; and their neighbor, William Bryan, 52.
Gregory McMichael is a former police officer and investigator with the local district attorney’s office — a connection that some have argued helped him avoid arrest immediately following the shooting. At his bond hearing, prosecutors played a recording of a voicemail message that he had left for Jackie Johnson, the former district attorney, shortly after the shooting, asking for her advice.
Travis McMichael is a former member of the U.S. Coast Guard who said in court last week that he had tried to employ his use-of-force training from the Coast Guard to “de-escalate” the situation when he pointed his gun at Arbery.
In the months leading up to the shooting, he had become increasingly concerned about a spate of property crimes — car break-ins, gun thefts and potential trespassing at a house under construction — in their usually quiet neighborhood of Satilla Shores outside of Brunswick, Georgia. On New Year’s Day, he reported to the police that a Smith & Wesson 9-mm pistol had been stolen from his unlocked Ford pickup truck.
The third defendant, Bryan, lives in the same neighborhood. From the beginning, Bryan has portrayed himself as a concerned citizen and a bystander who was drawn by the commotion and pulled out his phone to film the encounter. But a few months after the shooting, the authorities said that was hardly the full story: He had contributed to Arbery’s death by attempting to “confine and detain” Arbery with his vehicle, they charged.
Bryan’s lawyers have said that he was unarmed at the time of the shooting, and that he did not have a conversation with the McMichaels before the pursuit. — SOPHIE KASAKOVE
© 2021 The New York Times Company
