By Zack Linly
Recent motions filed by attorneys for Gregory and Travis McMichael — the father and son accused of chasing down and fatally shooting Ahmaud Arbery near Brunswick, Ga., on February 23, 2020 — appear to have one agenda in mind: Remove all indications of Arbery’s very humanity. In the motions filed on Dec. 30 and 31, not only are the McMichaels’ attorneys trying to ban photos that show Arbery pictured with, well, anyone, including family and other loved ones, but they don’t want Arbery referred to as a victim — despite the fact that he so clearly was one.
CBS 46 reports that the defense attorneys don’t want jurors to hear the word “victim” attached to Arbery’s name because “due process requires minimal injection of error or prejudice into these proceedings,” according to the motion.
“Use of terms such as ‘victim’ allows the focus to shift to the accused rather than remain on the proof of every element of the crimes charged,” the attorneys wrote. The lawyers who may or may not possess souls also wrote that the “burden of the prosecution should not be alleviated, minimized or diminished with the use of loaded words which imply that the prosecution has met its burden of proof that the crimes alleged have actually been committed.”
OK fine: So the lawyers don’t want the VICTIM to be called a VICTIM because the jury shouldn’t be reminded that a VICTIM was VICTIMized without proof of the VICTIMization of the obvious VICTIM having been established. But the ridiculous motions go even further than that.
Read the full story here. https://www.theroot.com/attorneys-for-gregory-and-travis-mcmichael-request-that-1845984491