Juror No. 380 had become the only Black juror in the murder trial that convicted three white men of murdering Ahmaud Arbery after defense attorneys struck eight other Black panelists as a final jury was being chosen. And he was the focus on Thursday, at a hearing, as attorneys for Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and their former neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan made their arguments for a new trial before Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley, the judge who presided at their 2021 murder trial and sentenced each to life in prison. Based on an interview given to a private investigator in mid-2022, Travis McMichael’s attorney, Pete Donaldson, told the judge that he believed that Juror No. 380 had “concealed his bias in favor of the Arbery family” when he was questioned during jury selection, the Associated Press reports. And so, on Thursday, Juror No. 380 was questioned about whether he lied during jury selection about harboring no biases against the men, who in 2020 chased a running Arbery in pickup trucks through their neighborhood before one of them fatally shot the 25-year-old Black man in the street.
Attorneys also questioned the juror about a day he bought a hotdog at a rally promoting justice for Arbery near the Glynn County courthouse where the murder trial was held. The man insisted he took his food and left, and it was unclear whether that happened before or during the trial. Regardless, he denied misleading the judge and attorneys about his ability to serve impartially during jury selection in October 2021.“I felt sorry for the family. After court started, I felt sorry for both sides,” the juror said on the witness stand Thursday. He added: “I wanted to help for the truth to come out, right from wrong.” Defense lawyers and prosecutors will have a month or more to file legal briefs summing up their arguments before Walmsley issues a decision.
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