New evidence in Ahmaud Arbery casts serious doubt on self defense claims.

Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William Bryan. NBC News.

New evidence in the Ahmaud Arbery case casts doubts on the claims made by the three men arrested in the case that it was self-defense. NBC News. A judge found during a preliminary hearing that there was enough evidence in the case to proceed, and during the hearing shocking testimony upended the claims of self defense. William Bryan reportedly told police that he had heard Travis McMichael call Arbery a "fucking n-word". The younger McMichael had also reportedly said the word in person and on social media. The hearing also explained the charges against William Bryan, who prosecutors say hit Arbery with his car. 

My Comment:

It looks like the McMichael's claim for self defense just went out the window. Their whole defense rested on this being a case of them chasing a burglar and the burglar attacking them. But if they instead chased him due to racial animus than that defense is totally done. Calling Arbery the n-word is pretty strong evidence that they were in fact targeting him based on his race. 

I might be willing to argue that in a case like this with charged emotions that someone could utter the n-word without meaning it. But given that there is evidence that McMichael used the word frequently enough and publicly enough (using it on social media could result in a ban, so he cared enough to use the word even if it cost him his account) makes me think that he, at least, was an actual racist. I won't speak for Bryan or Gregory McMichael, but at the very least Travis McMichael can hardly argue that he isn't a racist. 

This hearing also explained why William Bryan was charged. When I first heard the news I thought it was a huge miscarriage of justice because at that point everyone thought he was just a witness. But if the reports that Byran actually did ram Arbery with his car, than it throws the whole self defense case out the window. 

There is no way that ramming someone with a car is a lawful citizens arrest. Even if they knew Arbery had committed a felony, you cannot use deadly force to make a citizens arrest in Georgia and I would argue that hitting someone with a car is absolutely deadly force. Doing so erased any chance William Bryan could use to claim self-defense.

This also blows the McMichael's case out of the water as well as Bryan's as they were now invoking an illegal arrest. Arbery himself was resisting an illegal arrest and had every reason to believe that he was going to be killed by the McMichaels or Bryan as it sure looks like Bryan already tried. The McMichaels can't really invoke self defense if Bryan's actions made Arbery's self-defense claims valid. 

I also think that the actions of Bryan made Arbery's actions a lot more understandable. When this case first came out I thought it was very unreasonable for Arbery to charge McMichael as back then I thought he was simply running away. But if Bryan tried to run him over and succeeded in hitting him with his vehicle than he had every reason to think that the McMichaels were going to shoot and kill him so he had very little to lose by trying to disarm Travis MiMichael. It was still a low percentage option and I would have likely continued to try and run away, but it makes a hell of a lot more sense now in context.   

I do have some reservations though. It seems as though Bryan might have been pressured to say that McMichael said the N-word, since he didn't say this during the first interview. Given the high publicity of the case it's very possible that the prosecutors and police pressured Bryan to lie, or he thought lying could help his case. I think this is unlikely as it's a statement that hurts his case as well, so my guess is that this was just Bryan being stupid. Much like James Alex Fields, he said the wrong thing to the cops and destroyed his own case. Plus it doesn't sound like there is a deal on the table for Bryan, so he had no real reason to lie. 

I will also say that I still don't think Ahmaud Arbery was totally innocent here either. I have always said that at the very least he was guilty of trespassing and it's very possible that he committed a burglary as well. Had the McMichaels been motivated by that instead of race, as it appears to be now, it would have been justified to attempt to stop him. Obviously, with Bryan using deadly force that goes out the window, but I still don't think Arbery is someone to venerate. Yes, it appears that he was killed illegally now, but that doesn't mean he's a good guy. But  I will add that he certainly didn't deserve to die when it seems clear now that regardless of his actions prior to the encounter the defendants used excessive force and were in fact racist. 

My question is how on earth did this not come out until now? I understand that the Bryan statement was made very late in the case, but you would have thought we would have heard about Bryan ramming Arbery before now? Especially since there seemed to be no cause for the Bryan arrest, releasing that information would have been useful to know to the public. I guess it's possible I just missed it until now, but still, you think I would have heard about it? 

Does this have any wider context? Right now our country is tearing itself apart over race but will this particular development matter? I am not sure. I didn't even hear about this story until this morning even though it broke yesterday. It seems that George Floyd has gotten all of the attention, so perhaps people have forgotten about this case?

Do I think Black Lives Matter have a better claim now that blacks are mistreated? I think in this case they probably do, though I'd point out the obvious, none of these men were actual police officers. It seems for once that their intuitions about a case were right, unlike other, more famous cases, such as the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases. That has been against the pattern though, so I'm not ready to give them too much credit here, though I think they do deserve some.

As for myself, I do have to say that I wasn't expecting this outcome. I did hedge pretty hard in my first post on this subject, saying that something like this could happen. As I said then, there could be evidence that could be damning for the McMichaels and sure enough it came out. But I was certainly not expecting it to be something this stupid. Even if the only racist was Travis McMichael and even if he didn't kill Arbery out of racial hatred, it was still way too much force to use to try and make an arrest. And I don't think you can seriously make the claim that McMichael wasn't a racist anymore either. I do believe in accountability so I will say this pretty clearly: I think I was totally wrong in this case and I now support these charges and am hoping for a conviction. 

So what should happen to the defendants in this case now? Without some kind of mitigating factor I would throw the book at them if I was on the jury. I'd even say that for Gregory McMichael as it was an illegal arrest as soon as Byran rammed Arbery, even though the older McMichael didn't take any direct action. Felony murder works that way, and I think it's fair in this case. 

I also think that there are probably going to be hate crime charges. I think that Travis McMichael fits the bill for a hate crime charge based on my understanding of Title I of the Civil Rights Act. It's seems, at the very least, prosecutors can argue that McMichael that he was acting out of racism. Again, baring new mitigating evidence, I would support those charges and possibly the death penalty as well.