May 12, 2021 Share
Attorneys for a white father and son charged with chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery are asking a judge to allow evidence of the slain Black man’s past problems to be presented when their clients stand trial for murder.
Prosecutors are fighting to keep Arbery’s criminal record and other prior problems out of the trial, while seeking the judge’s permission to introduce unflattering evidence about the defendants namely text messages that contain racist slurs and social media posts with racist themes.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley has scheduled hearings on legal motions Wednesday and Thursday at a courthouse in Brunswick, 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Savannah.
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Attorneys representing the three White men accused of chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery want to be allowed to tell a jury about Arbery’s past run-ins with the law during the upcoming trial.
Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, was fatally shot while on a jog in February 2020. Father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael and William Bryan have been charged with murder in a state trial as well as federal hate crimes charges.
In a pre-trial hearing Wednesday, attorneys argued to introduce evidence Arbery’s criminal convictions as well as confrontations he had with law enforcement over a seven-year span leading up to his killing in a coastal Georgia subdivision.
By RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) â A judge said Thursday he will review under seal mental health records of Ahmaud Arbery to decide whether they can be used by defense attorneys to support their case that the slaying of the 25-year-old Black man was an act of self-defense.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley declined to hear from an expert witness that defense lawyers plan to use to discuss Arbery s mental health at trial until the judge rules on whether the records can be admitted into evidence. He ordered those documents to be sealed, meaning they won t be part of the public case record.