Lawyers spar over proposed evidence of Ahmaud Arbery's past law enforcement encounters

Defense attorneys for the Georgia men charged in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery want a judge to allow them to introduce evidence showing Arbery had several run-ins with law enforcement in the years before his February 2020 fatal shooting. At a pre-trial motions hearing in Glynn County court Wednesday, the defense called a series of law enforcement officials who described Arbery as agitated and hostile during encounters over shoplifting and trespassing incidents. 

A Cobb County prosecutor strongly objected to allowing the evidence at the October trial, calling it irrelevant because Travis McMichael and his father Gregory McMichael had no knowledge of the incidents when they armed themselves and pursued Arbery through their Brunswick neighborhood.  "The only purpose for placing the 'other acts' of Mr. Arbery before jury is to is to smear the character of Mr. Arbery and suggest that his murder was deserved," prosecutors wrote in a court filing.