Lawyers spar over evidence of Ahmaud Arbery's past police encounters
Defense attorneys for the Georgia men charged in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery want a judge to allow them to introduce evidence showing Arbery had several run-ins with law enforcement in the years before his February 2020 fatal shooting. At a pre-trial motions hearing in Glynn County court Wednesday, the defense called a series of law enforcement officials who described Arbery as agitated and hostile during encounters over shoplifting and trespassing incidents.
A Cobb County prosecutor strongly objected to allowing the evidence at the October trial, calling it irrelevant because Travis McMichael and his father Gregory McMichael had no knowledge of the incidents when they armed themselves and pursued Arbery through their Brunswick neighborhood.
"The only purpose for placing the 'other acts' of Mr. Arbery before jury is to is to smear the character of Mr. Arbery and suggest that his murder was deserved," prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
The McMichaels maintain they believed Arbery was the burglary suspect who had been stealing items from the neighborhood in the months prior to the shooting, leaving the community "on edge." In court Wednesday, Travis McMichael's defense attorney Jason Sheffield said the McMichaels had a right to pursue Arbery under Georgia's citizen's arrest law, which allowed citizens to detain people who had committed felonies. Governor Brian Kemp repealed the Civil War-era law this week. The defense has argued that Travis McMichael shot Arbery in self-defense when Arbery attacked him.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/lawyers-spar-over-evidence-of-ahmaud-arberys-past-police-encounters/ar-BB1gFyCM
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