Attorneys are asking a U.S. appeals court to throw out the hate crime convictions of three White men who used pickup trucks to chase Ahmaud Arbery through the streets of a Georgia subdivision before one of them killed the running Black man with a shotgun.

A panel of judges from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta was scheduled to hear oral arguments Wednesday in a case that followed a national outcry over Arbery’s death. The men’s lawyers argue that evidence of past racist comments they made didn’t prove a racist intent to harm.

    • rtxn@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Disagree on the lawyers. Their job is to zealously represent whoever the client might be, and anything less than that risks a mistrial due to ineffective representation. Borrowing former prosecutor Emily D. Baker’s words (from a Depp v. Heard livestream), not making such a motion is almost considered legal malpractice.

      You wouldn’t want those three cunts to walk free because of a procedural mistake.

        • rtxn@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Except sovereign citizens, they’ll hate them all the more once they need one.

      • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        Just like freedom of speech, everyone loves the right to representation until someone they don’t like exercises it. If rights don’t apply to everyone then they effectively apply to no one.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      It’s unconstitutional to torture them.

      Better do separate holes so they don’t annoy each other.

      • Beefy-Tootz@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Correction, it’s only unconstitutional if it’s also really weird. The rule prevents punishments that are both cruel and unusual, not cruel or unusual

      • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        8 months ago

        It’s kinda the UKs modus operati. Ship the problematic individuals in society away (criminals to Australia, puritans to the new England colonies).

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Not the lawyers. Everyone deserves a defense. John Adams defended the Boston massacre soldiers, even though he would be hated for it, because he believed in the rule of law and the idea that everyone gets a defense or the system is fucked

  • stoly@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Notable: their argument is that it was unfair to have used their social media posts in trial because what was said inflamed the jury against them. They are literally saying that you can’t use their past words against them because they were so bad that a jury would automatically react against them.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Well, it’s too late to not be vocally racist hillbillies, so what other shot do they have?

      I wish them a speedy trial and a swift return to their homes (cells, that is).

      Does America add time as a penalty for stupid appeals, yet?

    • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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      8 months ago

      This is why you shouldn’t post anything to social media that anyone could ever use against you unless you do so very anonymously.

  • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Unless they can prove that no other people ever went jogging through that neighborhood without being chased down and shot at, then there is a reason they specifically chose this person to chase down and shoot at.