Arbery’s mental health records cannot be used in the trial of murder suspects

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SAVANNAH, Georgia – Ahmaud Arbery’s mental health records cannot be used as evidence at trial by the white men who chased and killed the 25-year-old black man while he was running around their neighborhood, said a Georgia judge Friday.

The ruling by Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley further limits efforts by defense attorneys to portray Arbery as an aggressive young man with a troubled past when the case comes to trial, with jury selection scheduled to begin Oct. 18.

The judge ruled that Arbery’s medical confidentiality, even in the event of his death, outweighed the rights of the men on trial to a strong defense. And he concluded that a “highly questionable diagnosis” by a registered nurse that Arbery suffered from mental illness during his first and only visit to a mental health service provider in 2018 could unfairly prejudice a jury of firsts. instance.

“There is no evidence that the victim suffered from a mental health problem, or had otherwise decompensated, on February 23, 2020,” the date Arbery was killed, according to the judge’s ruling.

Prosecutors said Arbery was just jogging on that date when father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael armed themselves and chased Arbery in a van to their neighborhood just outside the port town of Brunswick, in approximately 70 miles south of Savannah.

A neighbor who joined the chase, William “Roddie” Bryan, took video on his cell phone that showed Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery as he threw punches and grabbed McMichael’s shotgun . Arbery was unarmed when he was killed by three shots from a shotgun at close range.

The McMichaels and Bryans were arrested and charged with murder after the video leaked online more than two months later on May 5. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case the next day and quickly arrested the three men.

Defense attorneys claim that the McMichaels and Bryans have committed no crime. They say the McMichaels suspected Arbery of being a burglar after being recorded by video cameras inside a house under construction. Lawyers for Travis McMichael say he shot Arbery in self-defense.

Lawyers for the two McMichaels did not immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment.

One of Bryan’s attorneys, Kevin Gough, said he appreciated the care and research that went into the judge’s ruling, but disagreed with the outcome.

“However, we expect the court to reconsider its decision in whole or in part in the coming weeks,” Gough said via email.

A month ago, the judge inflicted another setback on the defendants when he ruled that evidence of Arbery’s past run-ins with law enforcement, including two arrests, was also prohibited.

Defense attorneys hoped to cast doubt on prosecutors’ claim that Arbery was an innocent jogger and support their argument that the white men reasonably suspected Arbery of having committed a crime when they chased him down.

Prosecutors have argued that defense attorneys seek to bring Arbery to justice by making his criminal record and sanity part of the case. None of the three defendants knew Arbery, or anything from his past, before the shooting.

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