Killing of Ahmaud Arbery - Trial of the McMichaels and Bryan Set for October 18, 2021

[sugar magnolia]

My poor daughter has a complete gobbledygook of accents because she picks them up in every country she lives in.

[filly]

People tend to revert to the accent of their upbringing when around like speaking folks. But my point is people can and do intentionally adopt accents not part of their upbringing for various reasons. Mr. Gough has his Georgia accent when he’s being racist or trying to get a jury to identify with him.

[Foggy]

Off Topic

I wonder what accent my strawman uses when they spell my name in all caps.

[jcolvin2]

My poor daughter has a complete gobbledygook of accents because she picks them up in every country she lives in.

My sister spent her junior year of high school in Australia. She came back speaking like a proper Aussie.

Oddly, my accent seems to changes relatively little over time. Most people do not imagine that I was born and raised in Texas. (After moving to the Pacific Northwest for college, I stopped using the informal "y'all.")

[Foggy]

Off Topic

In SoCal, of course, there are a ton of voice and speaking coaches who will help you lose that toxic Noo Yawk (or Bahston, or Texas y'all) accent, so as you might possibly obtain a speaking part in Hollywood. Lots of law students from USC and UCLA take advantage.

[Volkonski]

[Dave from down under]

I for one would give up my seat in the court room for a pastor..

[Foggy]

Werd to da wise, don't mess with black pastors, they command armies.

[Slim Cognito]

Why am I hearing a chorus of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah?

(well, minus that one verse.)

[Slim Cognito]

Did I hear right? On cross-examination, McMichael the Younger, persisted in not answering "yes" or "no". At some point I think I heard him say he would not have stopped his truck if he saw Ahmaud Arbery was armed.

IF he said that, it makes me go, " Hmmmm?"

Wait, whut?

[filly]

Riddle’s lawyer is making noises about asking for a severance motion.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org ... chased-him

A prosecutor grilled the man who killed Ahmaud Arbery about why he chased him

Dunikowski probed the defense's contention that the three men were attempting to make a citizen's arrest of Arbery, and that McMichael killed him with a shotgun in self-defense after a brief struggle.

"Not once during your statement to the police did you say that you and your father were trying to arrest Mr. Arbery, did you?" Dunikowski asked.

"No ma'am," McMichael answered. He later said he never had time to tell Arbery that he was under arrest for any crime.

The prosecutor noted that McMichael had at least three opportunities to simply stop chasing Arbery, and to let the police handle the situation. She also said that on three occasions, Arbery made it clear that he didn't want to talk to McMichael, as he kept running away.

"He didn't talk," McMichael agreed.

McMichael said he got out of his truck at one point in the chase because Arbery had started running away from him. In that moment, he said, Arbery "was not a threat."

"Why in the world would Mr. Arbery be a threat to you?" Dunikowski asked.

The prosecutor noted that McMichael told Arbery to stop; McMichael says it was a request, not an order. He also confirmed that when he was chasing Arbery, the man wasn't carrying anything — a bag, backpack or a weapon.

"Yes, he was just running," McMichael said.

He then said he didn't think he startled Arbery when he drove his pickup truck up alongside him.

"I want to talk to you," McMichael said he told Arbery.

At that point, Arbery stopped, turned and started running back the way he came, he said.

McMichael says he reversed his truck to follow Arbery and asked him what had happened near the house where Arbery had been seen moments before.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2064994

Jury hears from neighbor who agreed to share disturbing video of Ahmaud Arbery's death


Travis says he was nervous & that's why so much of his new story from yesterday wasn't in his statement.

Travis says he was nervous & that's why so much of his new story from yesterday wasn't in his statement.
Q. So it's fair to say you never told Nohilly or put in your written statement that you told #AhmaudArbery you called the cops. (Which he says made Ahmaud run yesterday)
A. No

. Q. He hadn't threatened you? Hadn't pulled out a gun, hadn't pulled out a knife? Arms at his side & trying to run away from you?
A. And I was letting him run away.

[Volkonski]

[LM K]

My poor daughter has a complete gobbledygook of accents because she picks them up in every country she lives in.

My sister spent her junior year of high school in Australia. She came back speaking like a proper Aussie.

Oddly, my accent seems to changes relatively little over time. Most people do not imagine that I was born and raised in Texas. (After moving to the Pacific Northwest for college, I stopped using the informal "y'all.")

I've never been able to shake my y'all! I've tried!!

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

No one should evah drop "y'all". It is a universal constant. It is the first word I taught our Rotary Foreign Exchange student from Colombia.

[RVInit]

My poor daughter has a complete gobbledygook of accents because she picks them up in every country she lives in.

My sister spent her junior year of high school in Australia. She came back speaking like a proper Aussie.

Oddly, my accent seems to changes relatively little over time. Most people do not imagine that I was born and raised in Texas. (After moving to the Pacific Northwest for college, I stopped using the informal "y'all.")

I've never been able to shake my y'all! I've tried!!

I hear you! I grew up mostly in the south, and I used to get teased about saying " you all". Eventually I gave in and started saying "y'all", then had to unlearn it for professional reasons. It's a hard one to shake, it flows off the tongue so easily - smooth as jazz. It may not sound smooth, but it comes out so much more easily than other options.

[LM K]

Oh my!

The rats are trying to jump ship. Bryan asked for a plea deal sometime before defense closing arguments.

Defense attorney in the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial sought a plea deal for one defendant and was declined, Arbery's mother's lawyer says

A defense attorney for one of the three White men accused of chasing and killing Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery asked prosecutors for a plea deal and was declined, an attorney for Arbery's mother told CNN.

William "Roddie" Bryan Jr.'s lawyer "asked for a plea deal before resting their case. Prosecutors declined any plea offer," Lee Merritt, an attorney for Wanda Cooper-Jones, said Friday.


Travis McMichael, who fired deadly shots; his father Gregory McMichael, a former police officer and investigator in the local district attorney's office; and their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan Jr. are charged with malice and felony murder. The men have pleaded not guilty.


Additional charges levied against the defendants include aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit a felony. If convicted, each man could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

All three men have also been indicted on federal hate crime and attempted kidnapping charges.

Prosecutors cite inconsistencies from Travis McMichael
Over the course of two days, Travis McMichael gave testimony concerning the moments before, during and after the shooting. Prosecutors during cross-examination Thursday pressed McMichael on discrepancies in his statements and actions.

McMichael said during testimony Wednesday that he and his father had an encounter less than two weeks before the shooting with a Black man, who was "creeping through the shadows" near a home under construction. Residents testified in court that a spate of burglaries had hit the neighborhood before the shooting.

McMichael testified that on the day of the shooting, his father told him he saw "the guy that has been breaking in down the road." Jumping into their truck, Travis McMichael said they caught up to Arbery and tried talking to him twice, who did not respond.

Travis McMichael said he noticed another truck in the neighborhood. Prosecutors contend Bryan, the third defendant, got in his own truck and joined the pursuit, though he did not know what was going on, and struck Arbery with his vehicle.

Eventually pulling ahead of Arbery down the road, McMichael testified, he parked his vehicle and exited, then pointed his shotgun at Arbery as he approached, telling him to stop. McMichael claims Arbery got to the truck, grabbed the rifle and struck McMichael before he then shot Arbery.

On Thursday, prosecutor Linda Dunikoski challenged McMichael over what she said were inconsistencies in his accounts to authorities. That included not telling police initially that he and his father were trying to make a citizen's arrest, though that's what the defense has since contended. She also covered differences in his accounts on when and where he told Arbery certain things, such as to stop.

McMichael responded he was "scattered" and "mixed up" in the hours after the shooting, because "this is the most traumatic event I've ever been through in my life."

McMichael also acknowledged several times, under Dunikoski's questioning, that he never saw Arbery armed during the pursuit, never heard Arbery verbally threaten him and that Arbery never responded or showed any interest in conversing with McMichael as he tried to ask what he was doing.


Judge Timothy Walmsley said before opening statements he would allow the case to move forward, but he said the court "has found that there appears to be intentional discrimination" in the jury selection.

Ben Crump, an attorney for Arbery's father, said Arbery had been "denied justice" and was highly critical of the jury makeup, adding, "A jury should reflect the community," he said on November 4.
Days prior, Bryan's attorney Kevin Gough complained that older White men from the South without four-year college degrees, "euphemistically known as 'Bubba' or 'Joe Six Pack,'" seemed to be underrepresented in the pool of potential jurors that had turned up.


Last Thursday, noting the attendance of the Rev. Al Sharpton during the trial, Gough said he had "nothing personally against" Sharpton, adding, "We don't want any more Black pastors coming in here or other Jesse Jackson, whoever was in here earlier this week, sitting with the victim's family trying to influence a jury in this case." Gough apologized for his remarks the next day.

Is it just me, or is the defense trying for a mistrial based on "intentional discrimination"?

I've briefly skimmed McMichael's testimony. His cross-examination did not go well for him. I suspect that Bryan asked for a plea deal just before McMichael testified. I suspect Bryan is extremely disappointed, esp after McMichael's testimony, that his request for a plea.

I didn't know that Bryan hit Arbery with his truck or that Bryan just jumped in his truck without full knowledge of what was going on. I forgot that the trio claimed Arbery assaulted McMichael Jr., grabbed the rifle and assaulted McMichael Jr. with the rifle.

My heart just bleeds for McMichael Jr. He's all traumatized and stuff.

The trio must have pooed themselves when they learned there was cell phone video from a witness of the shooting.

[jcolvin2]

My sister spent her junior year of high school in Australia. She came back speaking like a proper Aussie.

Oddly, my accent seems to changes relatively little over time. Most people do not imagine that I was born and raised in Texas. (After moving to the Pacific Northwest for college, I stopped using the informal "y'all.")

I've never been able to shake my y'all! I've tried!!

I hear you! I grew up mostly in the south, and I used to get teased about saying " you all". Eventually I gave in and started saying "y'all", then had to unlearn it for professional reasons. It's a hard one to shake, it flows off the tongue so easily - smooth as jazz. It may not sound smooth, but it comes out so much more easily than other options.

While my first 18 years were filled with "y'alls," I can't really say it anymore without feeling like I'm intentionally putting on an accent for effect. Of course, the options for addressing a group ("you guys" "all y'all" "youse") all sound even less authentic. I pretty much stick with "you," even in informal settings.

[Patagoniagirl]

Thread Jack.

Anyone watch the trial?

[LM K]

No one should evah drop "y'all". It is a universal constant. It is the first word I taught our Rotary Foreign Exchange student from Colombia.

[Lani]

Regarding accents:

Off Topic

I had a strong Southern accent as a child. When I was in 2nd grade, my Yankee teacher sent me to speech therapy. The next year, my 3rd grade teacher from South Carolina canceled the therapy. By 4th grade, the majority of my class had northern accents, and my accent faded away. Still pops up from time to time, particularly if I'm speaking with someone who has that accent. Also, some times I slip into an Aussie accent. Perhaps maybe too often I tend to say things like "not bloody likely."

My kid spent his first 9 years in Oz. His accent mostly vanished within a year after we returned to HI, but he still has a bit of it when he speaks with his Aussie relatives. Also, we spent some time in Indonesia for a few years where he was in a multilingual preschool. Sometimes he still slips into saying terima kasih (thanks) and jalan jalan (going for walk).

BTW, my father supported my school making me stop with the Southern accent. He claimed that when he was a student at Georgia Tech in the 1930's, all students had speech therapy because they would have trouble getting a good job if they didn't ditch the accent.

[Dave from down under]

Thread Jack.

Anyone watch the trial?

Stone the flaming crows!

Strewth!

Bloody Oath!

I watched a little

The little I watched wasn't good for the defence.. but you can never tell with a jury..

Unfortunately I haven't much time at present what with work, elocution lessons etc.

[RVInit]

[LM K]

The defense closing arguments are disgusting. DISGUSTING.

McMichael Sr.'s attorney.


I think I hear a gasp in the courtroom just after that sentence.


McMichael Jr.'s lawyer.

Arbery had hands, so he was dangerous.







Seriously. A protest is grounds for mistrial?


Bryan's attorney:


Well, Bryan did purposefully run over Arbery with his truck.....