Quote (Goomshill @ 22 May 2020 14:36)
He wasn't "involved" with the people, but he's charged anyway
The prosecutors aren't ignorant of the facts of the case, they're taking what was already a tortured murder charge on the two McMichaels and making the most herculean stretch of all time that the guy committed felony murder by filming it
their legal argument- and I feel this should come with a disclaimer like that south park episode where it says 'this is what scientologists really believe'- is that because he picked up his phone and started filming from his truck when he saw arbery chased by the mcmichaels so that he could figure out what was going on and help, the fact that he pursued both the mcmichaels and arberys in the chase then makes him an unwitting accomplice to the citizen's arrest, and because they're charging the citizen's arrest as felony aggravated assault by arguing it had no legal cause, that makes him liable for felony murder.
which makes absolutely no fucking sense whatsoever under any reasonable reading of the felony murder rule
to commit felony murder, you have to knowingly commit a felony that a reasonable person could anticipate could create a fatal risk, and you then assume criminal liability for the risk- you can be responsible for deaths even if you didn't try to kill anyone, as long as your actions were both felonious and created the risk. In order for the armed citizen's arrest to be treated as a felony aggravated assault, the prosecutors have to say the mcmichaels had no legal justification from immediate knowledge of arbery committing a felony that would allow them to pursue him. So in order to charge the guy who just filmed it, they'd have to say that by joining in the pursuit without knowing what was even going on, by the mere act of driving his truck after Arbery, he became a participant in the citizen's arrest, which becomes a felony under their theory only because of a lack of legal justification he couldn't possibly know at the time, which somehow he was supposed to know posed a life and death risk, and just him driving after Arbery was an act responsible for Arbery's death.
this is the kind of shit that would make Beria blush.
I agree, I don't fully understand how the cameraman could be charged with murder here. Unless he knew McMichaels planned to kill Arbery and was someone in on it, which I sincerely doubt. Perhaps an accessory to murder? I'm not sure, I am not a lawyer.
Responding to previous statements and opinions you have expressed in this thread, though, I do not see a strong case for self-defense for McMichaels here. McMichaels appeared to be chasing Arbery (and not the other way around) and placed himself in Arbery's path, directly initiating contact and confrontation.