this is wildy simplistic analysis of an incident that is

Posted on: May 12, 2020 at 09:22:44 CT

way more complicated than your post suggests.

Did the McMichaels meet the elements of the GA citizen's arrest law? Well, the first DA said they did. To quote him, "It appears Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael, and Bryan William were following, in hot pursuit of a burglary suspect, with solid firsthand probable cause, in their neighborhood, and asking/telling him to stop. It appears their intent was to stop and hold this criminal suspect until law enforcement arrived. UnderGeorgia Law this is perfectly legal"

is this the correct legal analysis? I don't know, but I do know that it's going to be VERY difficult to prove murder beyond a reasonable doubt when you have the first DA on the record saying otherwise.

The McMichaels were aware of what they believed to be break-ins. The house in question, wildly reported to be under construction, was actually an existing house being renovated. The owner claims he had incidents of thefts from this home. The McMichaels knew this and had reported what is referred to as an auto-burglary themselves.

From the reports, I believe the McMichaels had seen the surveillance videos. In addition they reported to the police that the night before the shooting they encountered Arbery and at that time Arbery reached into his waistband which caused them to believe he was armed. the following day (the day of the shooting) they referred to this incident and said b/c of that they believed he might be armed again.

so going back to whether they met the elements of the GA citizen's arrest law. let's examine the law:

A private person may arrest an offender if the offense is committed in his presence or within his
immediate knowledge. If the offense is a felony and the offender is escaping or attempting to escape, a private person may arrest him upon reasonable and probable grounds of suspicion .”

was the offense committed in their presence? not that we are aware of but I don't know about the auto burglary.

was the offense within their immediate knowledge. yes

was the offense a felony? debatable. we haven't seen video of Arbery committing a felony inside the house but was their REASONABLE or PROBABLE grounds for suspicion that he had previously? this is the first big question of the case. I could see it going either way.

so pretty much everything hinges on that.

now as far as the shooting goes. they pulled ahead of him and you see Arbery running down the road. he then goes around the passenger side of the truck and then turns 90 degrees to the left, charges, and attacks (hitting him) Travis McMichael and a struggle ensues over the gun.

if the McMichaels have met the elements of the GA citizen's arrest law they have violated no law. If they haven't then Arbery has a right to self-defense and while stupid imo he has the legal authority to attack Travis McMichael.

however; once the struggle ensues over the gun; which Arbery initiated, the next hurdle that must be crossed was whether the shots were intentional or whether they were accidental. there's a lot of evidence to suggest all 3 shots occurred during the struggle over the weapon and were an accidental result of that struggle.

based on my experience if they go for murder 1 the prosecutor will lose this case, barring jury shenanigans. Same for Murder 2 in IMO.

based on the facts we know, I believe manslaughter might be in order, but I would not be surprised at all if the jury came back with a not guilty verdict.

Edited by blake1771 at 09:32:01 on 05/12/20