Lord have mercy! The father and son duo responsible for the death of Ahmaud Arbery has made an outrageous request to the court; they do not want Arbery to be referred to as “victim” during the trial proceedings.
According to TMZ, the defense attorneys for father Greg McMichael and his son Travis McMichael filed new motions requesting not to call him a “victim” in front of the jury because “they say that’s a conclusion that can’t be reached before a verdict.”
The McMichael’s chased down Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, with their truck on February 23 in Satilla Shore, a suburban neighborhood near downtown Brunswick, Georgia, before fatally shooting him.
The two white men continue to claim they are innocent and have pled not guilty they argue that they were acting in self-defense. Therefore, their request to not sway the jurors by using “loaded words” like “victim” seems reasonable to them.
They feel that the use of neutral language will give them a fair trial.
Furthermore, the McMichaels and their defense team have requested that only one “in life” picture—of Arbery by himself—be used to depict him. They also don’t want his family members to be the ones to identify him during the proceedings because there may be an emotional outburst. Instead, they ask that a third-party witness do it.
They feel that too many photos of him will create an ingrained bias in the jurors’ minds, which will make them sympathetic towards him.
And to add to the other outrageous demands, the defense team asks that Black Lives Matter masks not be allowed in court and that jail calls made by the Defendants be stricken as useable evidence. However, they do request that Arbery’s criminal record be admissible.
A trial date is still up in the air, and a judge hasn’t ruled on the motions at this time.
