Arbery case in mostly white jury’s hands
Fate of 3 men charged with murdering a Black man may rest on old citizen’s-arrest law.
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A nearly all-white jury began deliberating Tuesday in the case of three white men accused of hunting down and murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man whose death last year was captured on video and sparked racial justice protests across the nation.
Gregory McMichael, 65; his son, Travis McMichael, 35; and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan Jr., 52, are accused of felony and malice murder in Arbery’s fatal shooting, which they say was an act of self-defense as they were trying to carry out a citizen’s arrest.
“You can’t claim self-defense if you are the unjustified aggressor,” Linda Dunikoski, the lead prosecutor, said Tuesday as she wrapped up the state’s case. “Who started this? It wasn’t Ahmaud Arbery.”
The killing has already spurred Georgia to repeal its antiquated citizen’s-arrest law and pass a new hate crimes law.
No one disputes that the three men chased Arbery in their pickup trucks as he ran through their subdivision just outside this blue-collar Georgia port city. Nor do they disagree that Travis McMichael ultimately shot Arbery.
The case centers on questions about why the three men pursued Arbery, whether they had a legal right to carry out a citizen’s arrest, and whether Travis McMichael acted in self-defense in shooting Arbery, who, in the final moments of his life, suddenly ran toward the younger McMichael and wrestled for his gun.
Under Georgia’s nowrepealed citizen’s arrest law — an 1863-era statute that applies in the trial because it was in effect at the time of the shooting — an ordinary person could legally detain somebody suspected committing a felony.
At issue is the timing of such an arrest — whether it must be carried out immediately after the suspected felony or whether some time can pass.
Dunikoski argued for the former, telling jurors that the defendants’ actions on Feb. 23, 2020, were not a lawful citizen’s arrest because the men were “not present when any crime was committed” and did not have “immediate knowledge” of Arbery committing a felony that day.
The McMichaels and Bryan acted on assumptions and rumors and had no justification for hunting Arbery down and trapping him between two pickup trucks, she said.
Defense attorneys said that Travis McMichael had seen Arbery in a house under construction in their neighborhood 12 days before the killing, and argued that Dunikoski had mischaracterized the law to the jury.
The relevant statute states: “A private person may arrest an offender if the offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge. If the offense is a felony and the offender is escaping or attempting to escape, a private person may arrest him upon reasonable and probable grounds of suspicion.”
Judge Timothy Walmsley said that text would be included in instructions to the jury, which includes one Black juror. The other 11 are white.
On Monday, Dunikoski introduced the issue of Arbery’s skin color: The men attacked Arbery, she argued, “because he was a Black man running down the street.”
The defense countered the prosecution’s narrative, arguing that Arbery was not an innocent person simply jogging down the street.
Jason Sheffield, an attorney for Travis McMichael, said the defendants had reasonable suspicion that Arbery had committed burglaries in their neighborhood, and therefore had “the right to perform a citizen’s arrest.”
Sheffield said his client believed that Arbery was a “recurring intruder” who had committed burglary and might be armed.
Residents of the Satilla Shores subdivision were jittery and fearful after a string of trespassing incidents and burglaries, he said, and a security camera had captured images of Arbery inside a house under construction multiple times, including on the day of the shooting.
On Tuesday, Dunikoski argued that the defendants had no knowledge of Arbery’s intent and no evidence that he had committed burglary. The distinction is significant because burglary is a felony, but trespassing is a misdemeanor, which is not grounds for a citizen’s arrest.
Dunikoski reminded the jury that a neighbor, Matt Albenze, had called a nonemergency phone number — not 911 — on Feb. 23 to report that Arbery was at the unfinished house. Unlike the defendants, Albenze apparently did not think Arbery’s presence was of urgent concern.
In arguing that the killing was an act of self-defense, Sheffield pointed out that Travis McMichael fired his gun only after Arbery came around the side of McMichael’s truck, lunged at him and reached for the weapon.
McMichael “was afraid,” his lawyer argued.
In response, Dunikoski asked jurors: “Do you really believe he had no other choice but to use his shotgun? No other choice?”
Bryan’s attorney worked to distance his client from the McMichaels, pointing out that he did not know they were armed until moments before Arbery was shot and that he cooperated fully with the police, even giving them a crucial video of the shooting he took on his cellphone.
Dunikoski countered that Bryan helped the McMichaels by also chasing Arbery in his pickup truck, running him into a ditch and then steering him toward the McMichaels.
“It doesn’t matter who actually pulled the trigger,” she said. “Under the law, they’re all guilty, even of malice murder.”
In the video taken by Bryan, Arbery can be seen running along a winding road toward a parked pickup truck. Gregory McMichael is standing up in the truck bed with a handgun, and Travis McMichael stands beside the open driver-side door holding a shotgun.
As Arbery runs past the truck on the passenger side, the camera pans away briefly to show him swerving to the left and disappearing briefly from view behind the truck.
A gunshot rings out, and Arbery and Travis McMichael can be seen on the driver’s side tussling over the gun. A second shot rings out, and Arbery and McMichael continue wrestling. A third shot is fired at point-blank range, and Arbery stumbles to the ground.
The McMichaels were not arrested after the shooting even though law enforcement officers found Gregory McMichael, a former police officer and investigator with the local district attorney’s office, with blood on his hands.
In May 2020 — more thank 10 weeks after the shooting and amid mounting national criticism of local prosecutors’ handling of the case — the Georgia Bureau of Investigation charged the father and son with felony murder and aggravated assault. Bryan was charged two weeks later.