Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was fatally shot in February 2020 while out for a jog through a suburban Georgia neighborhood. Now, more than three years later, the three men convicted of his murder—Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan—have returned to court in hopes of securing a new trial. Their attorneys argue that a flawed jury process and inadequate legal defense marred the original proceedings.

The defense is seeking to overturn the convictions based on claims that one of the jurors concealed his bias in favor of the Arbery family. Travis McMichael’s attorney, Pete Donaldson, told the court that juror No. 30, the only Black member of the panel, felt pressured to represent the entire Black community during the trial. The juror allegedly confided to a private investigator in 2022 that he felt the weight of racial expectations on his shoulders, according to testimony presented in court. Judge Timothy Walmsley, who presided over the original trial, agreed to allow the juror to testify under strict conditions, though he prohibited any discussion of the jury’s private deliberations.

Defense lawyers also argued that William Bryan, who recorded the cellphone video of the killing, was misrepresented by his original attorney, who advised him to speak to investigators without legal safeguards in place. Bryan’s new attorney, Rodney Zell, contends that his client’s statements during these interviews inadvertently incriminated him and contributed to his conviction.

The February 2020 killing of Arbery went unpunished for more than two months until the video recorded by Bryan was leaked, sparking national outrage. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case, and the McMichaels and Bryan were arrested. Prosecutors charged the three men with murder, arguing that they had no grounds to pursue or detain Arbery, who was unarmed and had committed no crime. The video, which shows Travis McMichael firing a shotgun into Arbery at close range, became central to the trial and was a key factor in the murder convictions.

The defense continues to maintain that the McMichaels and Bryan believed Arbery was responsible for a string of burglaries in the area, though no evidence of theft was ever linked to Arbery. During the trial, Travis McMichael testified that he shot Arbery in self-defense after an altercation. However, Judge Walmsley had ruled that any previous arrests or encounters Arbery had with law enforcement were irrelevant to the case, as none of the defendants knew him before the chase.

The McMichaels and Bryan were also convicted of federal hate crimes in 2022, after a separate jury concluded that they targeted Arbery because of his race. Evidence presented in that case included racist social media posts and messages from all three men. The federal hate crime convictions are currently under appeal, with a decision expected from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Despite the legal motions being heard in Brunswick, Georgia, where the murder took place, the public response continues to focus on the broader racial issues highlighted by Arbery’s death. Alongside the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Arbery’s death fueled national protests against systemic racism in the U.S. criminal justice system.

The legal arguments for a new trial will be heard over the course of two days, with all three defendants seeking to overturn their life sentences. While Greg McMichael and his son were sentenced to life without parole, Bryan was granted the possibility of parole after 30 years. The request for a new trial marks the beginning of what could be a lengthy legal battle for the three men convicted of killing Arbery.