8:02 pm: We are halfway there! Today, nine more people made it through to the jury pool in the Ahmaud Arbery shooting case: Jurors No. 380, 381, 383, 386, 395, 396, 402, 403, & 414.
Court resumes Tuesday at 8:30 AM.
7:48 pm: Lawyers are discussing who should be struck for cause.
7:25 pm: Juror #414 appears to be a Black woman and wrote on her jury questionnaire that “After having problems in the neighborhood, three men took the law in their own hands.” She added that someone may or may not have been trespassing, but she still doesn’t feel that’s a reason for someone to lose their life.
She has a negative view about guns. She would be willing to hear out a self-defense claim.
Juror No. 414 supports Black Lives Matter and participated in a march a couple of years ago, unrelated to this case. She’s commented on social media posts related to this case to offer condolences, and doesn’t feel that anything she has posted or anything she saw on social media has swayed her to keep her from giving the defendants a fair trial.
Asked if she believes the defendants are guilty of anything as they sit in the courtroom right now: “I think that they are guilty of murder, but I think there are all kinds of circumstances that could probably justify murder.”
Believes there could have been a different outcome if the McMichaels had taken different actions such as tackling Ahmaud Arbery.
“I try not to have a negative opinion about anyone,” says she doesn’t feel the events leading to Arbery’s death should have happened, but she doesn’t have a negative feeling about Travis or Greg McMichael.
Juror 414 wants to believe race was not a factor and wants to give people the benefit of the doubt.
“I would like to believe if Mr. Arbery were white, this would still happen,” she said.
Juror 415, a white man, says he knows Greg and Travis McMichael from interacting with them on his job. He says he has a scheduling conflict and has plans to travel starting late next week--the only vacation he gets a year.
He doesn’t feel good about seeing the video: “What I’ve seen is disturbing.” No. 415 has somewhat formed an opinion on guilt or innocence: “He was definitely shot. He shot him. That’s the only opinion I have there.”
Said he’s heard about the case “a pretty good little bit,” and watches the news nightly, and says it would be hard to put the video aside; he doesn’t know what evidence they have to overcome the video.
7:21 pm: So far, struck for cause are Jurors 377; 379; 390; 392; 397; 408; 409; 411.
7:10 pm: Juror No. 402 appears to be a white man and says defendant Greg McMichael’s wife was once his supervisor on a job, but that that wouldn’t affect his impartiality. Because of heavy publicity, he’s not sure about anonymity, saying, “Whatever verdict comes down is likely to make somebody unhappy, and I have to live here.”
No. 402 says he hasn’t watched the video of the shooting at all, explaining, “I didn’t need to. A thousand people around me were telling me what they’d seen.” He’s commented on articles about the case on Facebook, read Fox news stories, and responded to one post from a CNN contributor he felt characterized Brunswick as a segregated, systemically racist town. His comment, he says: “It is not.”
When people brought up the case he said he thought there might be some “bad judgment” on the defendants’ part, but preferred to wait until there was more substantial evidence before passing judgment, even before he knew he would be summoned as a juror.
“I would like to think whether I’m chosen or not--and I’m certainly not asking to be chosen--that there would be some way to have a fair trial,” says Juror 402.
Juror 403 appears to be a Black woman and says she may know someone on the witness list, but they are not close, and she wouldn’t give their opinion any additional weight over other witnesses. She participated in an Ahmaud Arbery-related demonstration here to support friends, and has posted online about racial injustice. She says she can be impartial and follow the law, and doesn’t know a lot of facts about the case.
About the events she attended, No. 403 says, “I wasn’t in favor of everything that was going on, but I wasn’t opposed to everything that was going on.”
Said her friends have varying opinions on the case and she can’t speak for them. Some were in favor of arresting the defendants, some were up in the air, some were concerned about the community.
Asked to explain what the hashtag “Justice for Ahmaud” means for her, she said, “His life is gone. He can’t speak for himself, so some type of justice has to come out.” When asked what justice is: “Just to acknowledge that something went on.”
Asked if this case involved race: “I don’t know the facts.”
Saw the video of the interaction Arbery had with police in the park. Her takeaway was that citizens should understand the laws more and know more about what to do in certain situations.
5:40 pm: Juror 396 appears to be a white woman in her 30s, and she says she has no opinion on the guilt or innocence of any of the defendants. She says she has a suspicion that she went to school with someone on the witness list but isn’t sure. She says she’s scrolled past articles about Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting on Facebook.
Juror 396 says she didn’t want to be exposed to this case and has been limiting her exposure to it. When she started getting notifications about it from the local paper, “I snoozed them for 30 days.”
His attorney Jason Sheffield asked Juror 396 about going to high school with Travis McMichael. She says she wasn’t sure, but they may have.
Juror 396 isn’t sure whether she’s seen the video of the shooting and says she doesn’t know a lot of specifics about the case.
“This case became another case of community impact,” she said. “It became another example of uniting some and dividing others in the community. That’s been my takeaway of the case so far.”
No. 396 explains that she hasn’t discussed the case with a lot of people because she’s a homebody who tends to “live a pretty drama-free life.” Her questionnaire answer that “two guys murdered another guy” stemmed from general consensus of people around her. She tells lawyers she hasn’t heard of citizen’s arrests, and hasn’t been involved in the BLM movement.
“My theory is black, white, pink, purple, polka-dotted or rainbow, people are people and everybody has rights,” said Juror 396.
She tells the defense that there are probably entities that are trying to make the case about race, and that would only happen if the parties involve make it become that. Some capitalize on using certain motivations to create a frenzy, she thinks.
“When people are fighting, they’re not thinking. If they’re thinking, they’re probably not fighting,” 396 says.
5:25 pm: Juror #395 is a regular churchgoer and says he “doesn’t remember” whether he saw demonstrators or banners outside the courthouse. The juror said his pastor had talked about the case in church, and prayed for Ahmaud Arbery’s mother and her healing. No. 395 is not on social media, but has seen information about the case on the news.
“Somebody got killed, I know that, but the rest of it, what really happened, I don’t know,” said No. 395.
The defense asked the juror why he believed Arbery was killed while jogging: “I have no idea.” Asked if he saw references to ‘jogging’ on the news, he said, “That must have been where it came from. Are you saying he wasn’t jogging?”
Juror 395 says he can be open to hearing a self-defense case.
“I mean, that’s the only way to form an opinion,” he said. “You really have to know what happened.”
He said that based on what he’s heard about former DA Jackie Johnson, her handling of case made matters worse, and while he doesn’t know how, he knows “it was mishandled somehow.”
“The people voted her out, so she did something wrong,” said No. 395.
He was asked if he attended high school with defendant Roddie Bryan. He replied, “I don’t know. Was he? It’s possible, now.”
4:10 pm: Juror 386 is a Black man and wrote on his questionnaire, “It seemed Ahmaud was scared for his life and chose to defend himself against Travis and Gregory McMichael, who were armed.” When the State asked where he had gotten that information, he said, “It was everywhere. I saw it on the news. It was on social media. It was a bunch of different places.”
“He was just out for a run and what happened to him… he was killed while just out going for a run.”
He has “Liked” a friend’s post on Facebook about the “I Run With Maud” movement. He thinks he could put aside his emotional attachment to the movement to be objective. When asked what he believes would have happened if Arbery had been a white man, he said, “I thought about it. It wouldn’t have happened.”
Defense attorney Frank Hogue attempted to ask if the juror would want someone like himself on the panel if he were in Greg McMichael’s place. That’s one of the questions his wife and co-counsel had made an oral motion for earlier. The State objected, and Judge Walmsley sustained it, noting that it’s inappropriate and he has not ruled on it since the State had no knowledge of it. Hogue contended he “may have missed it...didn’t hear a court ruling on that question.” Judge Walmsley says the Court will address it when there’s an opportunity.
The defense asked #386 to clarify what he “Liked” about the “I Run With Maud” movement. He couldn’t pinpoint it, noting it was more a feeling, but said that he liked that it seemed to be putting positivity on a bad situation.
After Juror #386′s questioning was completed, Judge Walmsley said he wanted to “put a fine point on something that’s come up.” He referenced the question that was asked to No. 386 and pointed out that it was not asked to No 383.
“It looked at [Juror 383′s questionnaire], and it was not substantially different from Juror 386. In fact, 386′s first answer is, ‘You’re innocent until proven guilty.’” the judge said. “I have concerns about that question. That, by the Court, can be interpreted as a racially-charged question.”
Walmsley said he feels it is appropriate for the state to confer about the question. The attorneys from the prosecution and defense said they would talk amongst themselves during a recess.
After recess, the defense addressed the court’s concerns over the question being asked to 386 but not to 383. Sheffield said they want to ask the question to all jurors but asked it specifically of 386 because he had liked a Facebook post referencing the “Run with Maud” movement.
3:25 pm: Juror 383, appears to be a white woman, and knows Roddie Bryan, his child, and his fiancee, with whom she’s spent social time. While the two of them haven’t spoken in a while, she assumes they’re still friends on Facebook. No. 383 says she hasn’t formed an opinion about the three defendants’ guilt or innocence. She also recognizes three people on the witness list, but says she would not give their testimony extra weight because of it.
2:20 pm: A couple of jurors with ties to Ahmaud Arbery have been promptly excused from the jury pool. Juror #408 is second cousin to Ahmaud’s father, Marcus, Sr. Juror #411 had known Ahmaud for several months before his death and considered him a close friend.
2:15 pm: Gregory McMichael attorney Laura Hogue asks Judge Walmsley to allow more voir dire questions. She says the reason is “do everything we can to deal with a system” with lots of pretrial publicity. Her oral motion says they want to ask whether the time between Arbery’s killing and the defendants’ arrests affects the way the potential juror views the case; delve more deeply into what the juror knows about the case; whether the juror would want someone with their life experiences on their own jury; would they balk at a not-guilty verdict in deliberation because of worry about it impacting their standing in the community; and what the juror knows about citizen’s arrests.
The State was caught off guard by this--indicating they didn’t know this defense motion was coming and don’t immediately know how to formulate follow-up questions to these without knowing the content of the questions themselves. Judge Walmsley said it’s “inappropriate” to rule on a motion like this without the other side having had a chance to listen to it first.
The prosecution also points out that the example Hogue gave of a juror saying her understanding of a citizen’s arrest was “It’s when a citizen gets arrested” is not problematic because jurors don’t need to be well-versed in the law at this point; should they be seated, the judge will charge them with the appropriate law to consider.
12:35 pm: Juror No. 381 has lots of friends in law enforcement, and has had some conversations about the use of force with some of them. Since the defendants were all civilians, he believes they handled the situation “poorly.” The juror said he could consider the facts of the case and remain objective.
Jason Sheffield asked about 381′s decision to take part in the “Run with Maud” campaign:
“The one thing we can count on here in Glynn County is that we can stand as a community unified,” the man replied. “We have seen a tragic loss of life, and any time that occurs, the family deserves closure.”
Gregory McMichael attorney Laura Hogue asked how the publicity surround the trial could impact the case.
“As a prior law enforcement officer, my job is to provide facts,” the juror said. “In this case, with all the videos that are out there, I’m waiting to see facts.”
Walmsley adjourned for lunch until 1:15 p.m..
12:20 pm: Potential Juror No. 381 appears to be a white man and has previous work experience in law enforcement. He tells prosecutors he knows two witnesses on the list, and would likely believe their testimony at trial because he views them as “credible.”
No. 381 took part in the “I Run with Maud” campaign last year in which he ran, and posted a video to his social media.
“We had a tragic incident in this community in a time period where we saw more of those take place,” Juror 381 said. “I took pride in my community in how we reacted.”
Juror #381 has seen the video at least five times, and isn’t sure chasing Ahmaud Arbery was the best decision by the McMichaels and Bryan.
“They perceived a crime had taken place and they pursued that subject. It’s my understanding as a former law enforcement officer that when I perceive a crime, the best position for me is as a witness,” the juror said. “The first thing I should do is call law enforcement authorities and let them handle that situation.”
Travis McMichael attorney Jason Sheffield asked #381 about his opinions of the defendants.
“Do you believe as they sit here now that they have a committed a crime?” Sheffield asked.
“I’d say yes,” the man replied.
“And what crime is that?”
“Murder?” the juror said, phrasing his response like a question.
11:41 am: Juror #380, a Black man, has been questioned by the State and defense. He travels a bit for work, and has a relative who works in law enforcement. He respects the profession, and says he believes that officers treat Black people differently.
“I fully support the police department, but I’ve had some instances where, because of the color of skin, they was a little more forceful,” he says. Yet he says his good interactions with police have been more plentiful than the bad ones: “This would be a terrible place to live without law and order.”
No. 380 has seen the video of Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting about three times: “I saw the part where he was jogging and they passed by him in the truck...waited ;til they got up there and attacked him.”
Travis McMichael attorney Bob Rubin asked if racial stereotyping was at play that day.
“I think it did to a certain extent,” said #380. “He didn’t have no gun or nothing and he was by himself. It was three persons who attacked one, and no gun.”
Juror 380 says he can listen to the evidence in court and can fairly consider a self-defense defense and arguments about citizen’s arrest.
“There’s things that happened that we didn’t see and we don’t know,” he replied.
Rubin also asked him whether, with the great amount of pretrial publicity in the case, he would be worried about himself after reaching a verdict.
“As long as we make the right verdict, I wouldn’t worry about what anybody else thinks,” said Juror 380. “You see it all over the world, right and wrong. But once we go through court and get all the evidence, we will be able to make the right decision.”
After the juror left the courtroom, Roddie Bryan attorney Kevin Gough raised an objection, saying that Ahmaud’s father, Marcus Arbery, Sr., had nodded at #380 when he came into the courtroom.
“These kinds of subtle gestures are mildly concerning,” Gough told the judge. “I think we need to do something to make sure the jurors aren’t being influenced.”
Prosecutors said they didn’t see any gesture from Arbery’s father. Judge Walmsley told Gough his objection was noted and on the record.
10:39 am: The first jury pool panel of the week is in the Glynn County courthouse. Nineteen prospective jurors were in place as Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley greeted them, thanked them for their patience, and explained how the jury selection process works.
“Based on what happened the last couple days in jury selection, I expect this to take most of the day,” said the judge.
Two people raised their hands when asked if they’re related by blood or marriage to Ahmaud Arbery or the defendants. Fewer than a handful in this panel say they’ve already formed an opinion about the defendants’ guilt or innocence.
A woman whose daughter came to assist her because she has difficulty understanding English was excused. Two people--Jurors 377 and 379--were also struck for cause by consent. Those two were among the group of three or four who say they have opinions about guilt or innocence.