- 08 Aug 2022 21:04
#15242283
A man, William Bryan, has been unfairly sentenced to life in prison for his "role" in the death of a young black man (Ahmaud Arbery).
What did he actually do?
He pulled out of his own driveway with his truck to block the path of someone else who was running down the street.
Then he followed that person in his truck.
For this, he was blamed for "murder" and given life in prison.
To make the situation more outrageous, William Bryan is the same man who actually filmed the death, and there is practically no evidence that William Bryan did these things other than his own testimony and the video he himself took and gave to police.
William Bryan freely handed this over to police, and gave an account of what happened, because he did not believe he himself had done anything wrong.
This sounds completely insane and unjust, so what could be responsible for him being given a life sentence and blamed for a death he did not commit?
Probably the main reason is that emotions were running high, in a state of near hysteria, because the victim was black and people see it has three white men "ganging up" to kill a black man.
Even though the young black man was only shot because he charged at another man (Travis McMichael) and tried to pry away the shotgun he was holding from his hands. (This was captured on the video William Bryan took)
William Bryan tried to block the path of the young black man because he was running and he saw two of his other neighbors chasing him. Both of those men were on a neighborhood patrol and one of them was a retired police officer. So Bryan assumed that the person they were chasing had probably just been caught trying to commit a burglary or theft in the neighborhood and they were chasing him to keep to track his location until police could arrive.
The fact that the suspect was black likely also a factor in why Bryan assumed his neighbors were chasing someone who had committed a crime. For this, many people are angry at Bryan, that his actions against the young black man were likely influenced (even if only in part) by "racism". That Arbery might not have done what he did if the suspect had not been black. Even if it is understandable why Bryan did what he did.
There are additional details about this.
This was one of the most damning parts of Bryan's testimony, captured on a police body camera while he was giving a report of what happened to a police officer who had shown up on scene:
"I pulled out of my driveway, was gonna try to block him. He was going all around it. And I made a few moves at him, you know? And... um... he didn't stop."
From this, some people believe that he repeatedly tried to hit Arbery with the truck. (Which could be evidence of trying to harm Arbery if true) But that is not necessarily the case and Bryan's language is kind of vague. It may have been that Bryan was just in a little bit of shock after the witnessing altercation and killing, and Bryan was also prone to exaggeration and embellishment a little bit, almost a little boastful, believing that they had done the right thing by trying to stop a criminal in their neighborhood, and taking some glee in discussing their attempts to try to stop him from running away.
A hand print from Arbery was also found on Bryan's truck. Some people believe this constitutes evidence that Bryan actually hit Arbery with his truck or came up extremely close to him trying to harass him.
However, according to testimony from Travis McMichael, Arbery had gone up to Bryan's truck and was banging on the driver's side window. (Probably because Arbery was angry that he was being continuously being followed, and that Bryan had earlier tried to cut his path off while he was running in the middle of the road. Arbery may have been banging on the truck to annoy Bryan and imply a passive threat that he could mess up the man's vehicle if he continued following him)
Those who believe Arbery was "murdered" say that Arbery was feeling terror the whole time. But others who defend the shooting of Arbery say Arbery was "playing" with them the whole time, and that his actions were motivated in part by anger and resentment, not wanting to be chased by three white men. (In fact at the trial, Greg McMichael said he wanted to make sure Arbery knew they were not just "playing around", which implies that there may have been some perception that Arbery seemed to be toying with them) So there are two different perspectives on this.
William Bryan was charged with "murder" and "attempt to commit false imprisonment", even though of course he never murdered anyone, never tried to kill or murder anyone, the evidence is extremely flimsy that he even attempted to harm Arbery, he never actually tried to detain Arbery himself, and there is no solid evidence that was even going to try to personally do it.
Why then was he charged with "murder" and "attempt to commit false imprisonment"?
The argument is that the death of Arbery would likely not have happened if William Bryan had not been following him. Some people view this as William Bryan "driving" the suspect towards the other two men in the other truck. (It is not even clear that that is what William Bryan specifically intended to do) This caused Arbery to feel fear (either that they might be trying to harm him, or that they would hold him there until police arrived and police might arrest him, or that he would go back to prison if his probation were revoked, whether that was actually a rational thought or not), and those who believe William Bryan is guilty believe fear is what drove Arbery to attempt to pry the shotgun out of Travis's hands (whether that was actually a logical thing to do or not) and resulted in his death.
If William Bryan's actions ended up leading to the death of someone, even if it was very indirectly, and those actions constituted a felony and their was animus against the suspect, then under a strict literal reading of the state law, Bryan would be guilty of murder. (Keep in mind the literalistic legal versus ethical distinction. A literal interpretation of a law may not always be fair or right)
In addition, after William Bryan was sentenced to life in prison in the state of Georgia, he was then tried separately again in federal court and convicted of "using force and threats of force to intimidate and interfere with Arbery's right to use a public street because of his race", and "attempted kidnapping".
So he will be sentenced two separate times for the same "crime".
This means that even if his conviction is overturned, or his sentence is commuted in state court, he will still have to serve prison in federal court. This will make it double hard for him to try to overturn his conviction.
In my opinion, these verdicts against him seem to be fueled by anger, emotion, and "mob justice".
William Bryan also faced poor conditions while being held in prison before his trial.
'It's oppressive' | Man accused in Ahmaud Arbery death tells judge he spends 23 hours a day in jail, First Coast News, November 16, 2021
William Bryan describes being kept in a jail cell 23 hours a day, only being allowed outside of the cell for 1 hour each day.
He was being held in the Glynn County Detention Center for 18 months before his trial.
He describes how his cell is about 8 by 12 feet in size, he estimates. The cell itself has no windows to the outside. But there is a glass window panel in the door, only about half a foot wide, from which he can see natural sunlight coming down through a skylight in a big interior room.
There is no television in the cell, although there is a television in the common space outside.
He only has the opportunity to take a shower once each day, but he says sometimes he may have to wait up to 36 hours to take a shower. He doesn't get to choose when he takes a shower. It could be anywhere between 4:30 in the morning to 8:30 in the morning.
The space he is in is designated for prisoners being held in special protective custody for their own protection, so none of the prisoners in that specific cellblock are allowed to fraternize with each other. Of course none of the prisoners in that jail are able to go literally outside, to an area that does not have a ceiling. The toilet in the cell is stainless steel and the walls are cinderblock.
Three meals a day are brought to his cell, but the dinner is a bagged meal and is cold.
For the first three months he was allowed non-contact visitation through glass, with a telephone, but due to the Covid pandemic, after that he had not been allowed any actual in-person visits except by his lawyer. He is allowed to talk to his family on a video monitor but only two times each week for only 15 minutes each time. He can make phone calls, but they are very expensive per minute. He has to pay for them.
What did he actually do?
He pulled out of his own driveway with his truck to block the path of someone else who was running down the street.
Then he followed that person in his truck.
For this, he was blamed for "murder" and given life in prison.
To make the situation more outrageous, William Bryan is the same man who actually filmed the death, and there is practically no evidence that William Bryan did these things other than his own testimony and the video he himself took and gave to police.
William Bryan freely handed this over to police, and gave an account of what happened, because he did not believe he himself had done anything wrong.
This sounds completely insane and unjust, so what could be responsible for him being given a life sentence and blamed for a death he did not commit?
Probably the main reason is that emotions were running high, in a state of near hysteria, because the victim was black and people see it has three white men "ganging up" to kill a black man.
Even though the young black man was only shot because he charged at another man (Travis McMichael) and tried to pry away the shotgun he was holding from his hands. (This was captured on the video William Bryan took)
William Bryan tried to block the path of the young black man because he was running and he saw two of his other neighbors chasing him. Both of those men were on a neighborhood patrol and one of them was a retired police officer. So Bryan assumed that the person they were chasing had probably just been caught trying to commit a burglary or theft in the neighborhood and they were chasing him to keep to track his location until police could arrive.
The fact that the suspect was black likely also a factor in why Bryan assumed his neighbors were chasing someone who had committed a crime. For this, many people are angry at Bryan, that his actions against the young black man were likely influenced (even if only in part) by "racism". That Arbery might not have done what he did if the suspect had not been black. Even if it is understandable why Bryan did what he did.
There are additional details about this.
This was one of the most damning parts of Bryan's testimony, captured on a police body camera while he was giving a report of what happened to a police officer who had shown up on scene:
"I pulled out of my driveway, was gonna try to block him. He was going all around it. And I made a few moves at him, you know? And... um... he didn't stop."
From this, some people believe that he repeatedly tried to hit Arbery with the truck. (Which could be evidence of trying to harm Arbery if true) But that is not necessarily the case and Bryan's language is kind of vague. It may have been that Bryan was just in a little bit of shock after the witnessing altercation and killing, and Bryan was also prone to exaggeration and embellishment a little bit, almost a little boastful, believing that they had done the right thing by trying to stop a criminal in their neighborhood, and taking some glee in discussing their attempts to try to stop him from running away.
A hand print from Arbery was also found on Bryan's truck. Some people believe this constitutes evidence that Bryan actually hit Arbery with his truck or came up extremely close to him trying to harass him.
However, according to testimony from Travis McMichael, Arbery had gone up to Bryan's truck and was banging on the driver's side window. (Probably because Arbery was angry that he was being continuously being followed, and that Bryan had earlier tried to cut his path off while he was running in the middle of the road. Arbery may have been banging on the truck to annoy Bryan and imply a passive threat that he could mess up the man's vehicle if he continued following him)
Those who believe Arbery was "murdered" say that Arbery was feeling terror the whole time. But others who defend the shooting of Arbery say Arbery was "playing" with them the whole time, and that his actions were motivated in part by anger and resentment, not wanting to be chased by three white men. (In fact at the trial, Greg McMichael said he wanted to make sure Arbery knew they were not just "playing around", which implies that there may have been some perception that Arbery seemed to be toying with them) So there are two different perspectives on this.
William Bryan was charged with "murder" and "attempt to commit false imprisonment", even though of course he never murdered anyone, never tried to kill or murder anyone, the evidence is extremely flimsy that he even attempted to harm Arbery, he never actually tried to detain Arbery himself, and there is no solid evidence that was even going to try to personally do it.
Why then was he charged with "murder" and "attempt to commit false imprisonment"?
The argument is that the death of Arbery would likely not have happened if William Bryan had not been following him. Some people view this as William Bryan "driving" the suspect towards the other two men in the other truck. (It is not even clear that that is what William Bryan specifically intended to do) This caused Arbery to feel fear (either that they might be trying to harm him, or that they would hold him there until police arrived and police might arrest him, or that he would go back to prison if his probation were revoked, whether that was actually a rational thought or not), and those who believe William Bryan is guilty believe fear is what drove Arbery to attempt to pry the shotgun out of Travis's hands (whether that was actually a logical thing to do or not) and resulted in his death.
If William Bryan's actions ended up leading to the death of someone, even if it was very indirectly, and those actions constituted a felony and their was animus against the suspect, then under a strict literal reading of the state law, Bryan would be guilty of murder. (Keep in mind the literalistic legal versus ethical distinction. A literal interpretation of a law may not always be fair or right)
In addition, after William Bryan was sentenced to life in prison in the state of Georgia, he was then tried separately again in federal court and convicted of "using force and threats of force to intimidate and interfere with Arbery's right to use a public street because of his race", and "attempted kidnapping".
So he will be sentenced two separate times for the same "crime".
This means that even if his conviction is overturned, or his sentence is commuted in state court, he will still have to serve prison in federal court. This will make it double hard for him to try to overturn his conviction.
In my opinion, these verdicts against him seem to be fueled by anger, emotion, and "mob justice".
William Bryan also faced poor conditions while being held in prison before his trial.
'It's oppressive' | Man accused in Ahmaud Arbery death tells judge he spends 23 hours a day in jail, First Coast News, November 16, 2021
William Bryan describes being kept in a jail cell 23 hours a day, only being allowed outside of the cell for 1 hour each day.
He was being held in the Glynn County Detention Center for 18 months before his trial.
He describes how his cell is about 8 by 12 feet in size, he estimates. The cell itself has no windows to the outside. But there is a glass window panel in the door, only about half a foot wide, from which he can see natural sunlight coming down through a skylight in a big interior room.
There is no television in the cell, although there is a television in the common space outside.
He only has the opportunity to take a shower once each day, but he says sometimes he may have to wait up to 36 hours to take a shower. He doesn't get to choose when he takes a shower. It could be anywhere between 4:30 in the morning to 8:30 in the morning.
The space he is in is designated for prisoners being held in special protective custody for their own protection, so none of the prisoners in that specific cellblock are allowed to fraternize with each other. Of course none of the prisoners in that jail are able to go literally outside, to an area that does not have a ceiling. The toilet in the cell is stainless steel and the walls are cinderblock.
Three meals a day are brought to his cell, but the dinner is a bagged meal and is cold.
For the first three months he was allowed non-contact visitation through glass, with a telephone, but due to the Covid pandemic, after that he had not been allowed any actual in-person visits except by his lawyer. He is allowed to talk to his family on a video monitor but only two times each week for only 15 minutes each time. He can make phone calls, but they are very expensive per minute. He has to pay for them.
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