ATLANTA — News media companies including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday asked a judge to grant the press access to the jury selection process in the trial involving the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
The media companies, including CNN, The Associated Press, WSB-TV and Court TV, were responding to a recent motion filed by defense attorneys to keep the press out of the courtroom during individual questioning of jurors for the Oct. 18 trial.
“We very much object to the closure,” said Atlanta lawyer Tom Clyde, who represents the media outlets. “We think that’s in conflict with well-established constitutional law.”
Clyde noted there is enormous public interest in the case. “For that reason, we believe openness in the jury selection process to the maximum degree possible is a very important step for the court to take,” he said.
The motion was filed by lawyers representing Travis McMichael and his father, Greg McMichael. The McMichaels and William "Roddie" Bryan are charged with murder and other offenses in the killing of the unarmed, 25-year-old Arbery.
Laura Hogue, one of Greg McMichael’s lawyers, told Judge Timothy Walmsley the defense does not want to bar the news media from the entire jury selection process. The request is only to shield coverage when each juror is questioned by lawyers outside the presence of the other jurors, she said.
“We are asking questions that are sensitive, that a potential juror may be afraid to reveal in open court,” Hogue said. “And more importantly issues that go to the heart of this case that require complete candor.”
The case is so emotionally charged, Hogue said, the defense has had witnesses who refused to testify because they “were just too frightened to do so.” There are also witnesses who testified in pretrial hearings who “were lambasted on social media afterwards and have absolutely announced they will never come back in here again.”
Walmsley granted the media outlets’ request to intervene in the case and argue for keeping the jury selection process open. He did not hand down an immediate ruling on the issue.
On Feb. 23, 2020, Greg McMichael saw Arbery running down the street in the Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick. Security camera video from a house under construction and owned by Larry English showed Arbery enter the home before he ran down the street.
McMichael, in his front yard, called to his son and they got their guns, jumped into a truck and sped after Arbery. Bryan, a neighbor down the street, soon joined in the chase in his pickup.
When the men, who are white, had Arbery hemmed in, Arbery lunged at Travis McMichael, who had gotten out of his truck with his shotgun. McMichael killed Arbery, who was Black, with three blasts.
The McMichaels and Bryan contend they were making a valid citizen’s arrest on grounds they reasonably suspected Arbery was fleeing a scene where he had committed a felony. They also argue Travis McMichael was acting in self-defense when he shot and killed Arbery.
Prosecutors note that Arbery had nothing on him when he was killed and contend the McMichaels and Bryan were the initial aggressors and had no grounds to make a citizen’s arrest.
On Thursday, Walmsley considered pretrial motions that had been filed by both the prosecution and the defense. Arguments grew heated when Walmsley addressed a motion by prosecutors to restrict the defense’s use of terms such as “burglary” and “carjacking.”
Kevin Gough, Bryan’s attorney, said when the McMichaels and Bryan were chasing Arbery in their trucks, Arbery tried to enter Bryan’s pickup.
This could have been attempted motor vehicle theft, carjacking or an assault, Gough said. Arbery may have been trying “to beat him up and throw him in the woods,” he said. “Mr. Arbery was intending to commit a felony.”
This gave Bryan and the McMichaels’ another reason to try an conduct a citizen’s arrest, independent of Arbery being seen running away from the English home under construction, Gough said.
Lead prosecutor Linda Dunikoski strongly dismissed such an argument.
“The defendant Mr. Bryan hit Mr. Arbery with his truck,” she said. “He assaulted him with a 5,000-pound lethal weapon — a pickup truck.”
Dunikoski cited Bryan’s own statements in interviews with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in which he said he ran Arbery off the road into a ditch.
“It’s offensive this has been turned into the victim was trying to commit a carjacking,” she said, then pointing her finger at Bryan. “He was trying to save his life from that man who was trying to hit him with a truck.”
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