‘Long, Dirty Toenails’: Heartless Defense Attorney Disrespects Ahmaud Arbery During Closing Arguments

The defense attorneys representing Greg and Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan appear to be in a second competition with each other to prove who can do the best job of being as vile and racist as the white trash killers they are representing.
I mean, at this point, the leading attorney in that particular race has to be Bryan’s lawyer Kevin Gough, who has declared that “We don’t want any more Black pastors here,” compared the existence of those Black pastors to the KKK and to “public lynchings,” complained that the overwhelmingly white jury still doesn’t include enough “Bubbas and Joe six-packs,” and he joined the defense attorneys for the McMichaels in calling for a mistrial because Ahmaud Arbery’s mother cried in court—a common thing for parents who have to listen to the details of their sons’ or daughters’ deaths. (Of course, said parents would need to be white for this pack of Klan-ish lawyers to recognize their basic humanity.)
MORE: ‘We Don’t Want Any More Black Pastors Here’: This Ahmaud Arbery Murder Trial Defense Lawyer Has Lost His Mind
But during closing arguments on Monday, it was attorney Laura Hogue, who represents the elder McMichael, who apparently decided she wasn’t going to let Gough keep stealing her white supremacist shine, so in her closing statements, she decided to turn Arbery into a runaway slave trope by, for no apparent reason whatsoever outside of pure anti-Blackness, making comments about his “long, dirty toenails.”
Greg McMichael’s defense attorney Laura Hogue presents a closing argument to the jury during the trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s alleged killers at Glynn County Superior Court on November 22, 2021, in Brunswick, Georgia. | Source: Pool / Getty
“Turning Ahmaud Arbery into a victim after the choices that he made does not reflect the reality of what brought Ahmaud Arbery to Satilla Shores in his khaki shorts, with no socks to cover his long dirty toenails,” Hogue said, according to CNN.
Here’s the thing: Since the start of this trial, the defense has been dead set on putting Arbery on trial for his own murder. Since Judge Timothy Walmsley has repeatedly rejected their bids to include the victim’s past run-ins with police, mental health issues and probation as evidence that he deserved to be shot by a bunch of rabid Dollar Store vigilantes, Hogue has now devolved into making ridiculous remarks on his appearance. White people wear sweats and gym suits when they go jogging, so she’s relying on the jury not to identify with people who exercise in whatever old clothes they have lying around.
Also—let’s talk about those negroes and their “long dirty toenails,” because where’s a proper noose when you need one, amirite?
Civil rights attorney, former prosecutor and legal analyst Charles Coleman Jr. told CNN that Hogue’s “word choice was intentional, her descriptions were unnecessary and the description ultimately is inflammatory.” He also called the description an “attempt to sort of really trigger some of the racial tropes and stereotypes that may be deeply embedded in the psyche of some of the jurors.”
While Hogue’s likely intentional runaway slave description was racist and horrid, it was also ironically appropriate since the recently repealed citizens arrest law the lawyers are hinging their defenses on is rooted in slave patrol protection.
This brings us to the rest of Hogue’s closing argument as well as that of the McMicaels’ attorneys.
“He died because for whatever inexplicable, illogical reason, instead of staying where he was, whatever overwhelming reason he had to avoid being captured that day and arrested by the police,” Hogue went on to say, completely ignoring the fact that none of Arbery’s pursuers were police officers and that it’s normal to run when regular-degular citizens are chasing you while armed. (But again, the victim would need to be white to be “normal.”)
Travis’ attorney Jason Sheffield made a similar argument in his closing saying, “You do have the right to have a firearm when you make an arrest.
“You do have the right to stop a person and hold them and detain them,” he continued. “There is risk with that. There are tragic consequences that can come from that.”
Sheffield also argued that Travis was afraid Arbery was armed as well and that he only tried “to defend himself, to protect himself,” despite the fact that the redneck trio had chased Arbery around the neighborhood for at least five minutes and blocked him from leaving the subdivision, and at no time during that negro hunt did Arbery brandish a weapon.
Also, are white civilians the only ones who are allowed to be armed and to do whatever they needed to defend themselves?
It’s clear that these attorneys are going for the same defense that got Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse acquitted.
It’s simple, really: As long as you’re white, you can claim self-defense no matter how clear it is that you were the aggressor and the initiator of the deadly situation.
Also, you probably have clean and trimmed toenails.
SEE ALSO:
Beyond The Verdict: Coalition Sees Justice For Ahmaud Arbery As A Beginning Of A More Just Georgia
Prosecutors Reject Plea Deal From Ahmaud Arbery’s Accused Murderer, Lee Merritt Says
This video is from 11/17. Larry English called 911 on 11/18 and said he had a problem with "other people" the night before. This appears to show that day and is from English's attorney. There is no record of neighbors calling 911 this day, based off records from Glynn Co 911 pic.twitter.com/BXlyYEaBcL
Police told the homeowner where #AhmaudArbery was last seen to contact Greg McMichael if his cameras caught someone on his property. McMichael in turn gathered a posse & began hunting for Ahmaud, or someone who fit his description, catching up with him on 2/23/20– killing him. pic.twitter.com/BmlmW636f5
This is the man that set the plan in motion that led to the murder of #AhmaudArbery.

ROBERT RASH is a Glynn County Police Officer.

He instructed a homeowner to contact Gregory McMichael to deal w/ trespassers.

McMichael and his son formed a posse and murdered Ahmaud Arbery. pic.twitter.com/ZqZg567Agp
Larry English’s attorney gave me this video from Feb 11. It shows the incident outlined in my story when Travis McMichael called 911 and saw someone in the home. On 2/23, he and his father thought the Abrery was who they saw on the 11th pic.twitter.com/C2gVJCJ3xQ
This is the DA who blocked the arrest of 2 white supremacist TERRORISTS after they murdered an innocent black man execution style while he was jogging in his neighborhood

JACKIE JOHNSON NEEDS TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR OBSTRUCTING & ENDANGERING THE LIVES OF BLACK MEN

ARREST HER pic.twitter.com/ngSIEGMCq1
If you’re wondering why no charges were initially filed on the murderers of #AhmaudArbery, it’s because D.A. George Barnhill immediately concluded Arbery was a criminal & that he attacked the men who were hunting him.

This is letter Barnhill sent to the Brunswick authorities pic.twitter.com/vsGCboful7
Police report sheds more light on Satilla Shores shooting https://t.co/Zi6YVGTkhK
Georgia District Attorney George Barnhill’s letter justifying the murder of #AhmaudArbery pic.twitter.com/Fat403OCkT
We’ll never know how often Black life is taken, justice denied:

“Two Weapons, a Chase, a Killing and No Charges.
A 25-year-old man running through a Georgia neighborhood ended up dead. A prosecutor argued that the pursuers should not be arrested” @nytimes https://t.co/pJA6kSK6cj
Stand with us and demand that Ahmaud’s murders are charged in his death. They are not immune from prosecution and should be tried for murder. #IRunWithMaud pic.twitter.com/tb57wtfNE4
The arrest of murderers Gregory and Travis McMichael.#JusticeForAhmaudArbery pic.twitter.com/Cb6pqZRKdO
On what would have been his 26th birthday, people were jogging 2.23 miles in his honor to signify the date he was killed by Gregory and Travis McMichael, who racially profiled and shot the jogger in Brunswick, Georgia. #IrunwithMaud #IRunwithAhmaud https://t.co/V2KuBaeKjx
NBC’s @ReporterBlayne spoke with AG Chris Carr about why he made call to request the U.S. DOJ to step in to investigate the handling of Ahmaud Arbery case. #MorningRushATL pic.twitter.com/mWNSwZIrl2
Another huge WIN for #JusticeForAhmaud! At the family’s demand— a special prosecutor will replace Tom Durden the S. GA prosecutor that sat on the case until video of Ahmaud’s murder was leaked. Joyette Holmes is out of @cobbcountygovt. Her office is being reviewed for conflicts. pic.twitter.com/rcuQ7UPOfE
“Ahmaud, I am so sorry. I should have stopped them,” reads the note. “I am so sorry.” The card was not signed by a name and no more information or context was provided, including when the card was left there. https://t.co/nzzY5aNple
Because this story wasn't bad enough now we discover Lindsay McMichael, the daughter and sister of Ahmaud Arbery’s alleged killers, posted a picture of Ahmaud’s deceased body to snapchat pic.twitter.com/RwTwzrAXAG
Today, the GA Congressional Delegation co-signed a letter to U.S. AG William Barr and Asst AG Eric Dreiband, encouraging the use of “all possible Federal resources to achieve full justice, transparency, and accountability in the case of Mr. Ahmaud Arbery.” https://t.co/8FcMZEEKWF
NEW: Attorneys for Ahmaud Arbery's parents announce that the Department of Justice will be investigating Arbery's killing and why it took so long to arrest the people responsible. See their statement here: pic.twitter.com/yfcnrT5SjV
Reports of a photo op with the president or standing with the White House during the EO signing are false.

Show me the civil rights leaders who are upset about families making a direct appeal for federal intervention after the murder of their loved one & I’ll show you a clown. pic.twitter.com/GXR5arB8Mz
William ‘Roddie’ Bryan tried to publicly absolve himself of having any part in Ahmaud Arbery’s modern-day lynching, but this newly released bodycam footage confirms what we long suspected: He clearly used his truck to block Ahmaud's escape from the McMichaels! pic.twitter.com/UAms4LYS28
This is the mugshot of disgraced District Attorney Jackie Johnson who was just arrested today for her role in the coverup of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. pic.twitter.com/OKF2xKkV3Z
Source: Sean Rayford / Getty UPDATED: 6:45 a.m. ET, Oct. 18, 2021 Originally published: May 26, 2020 Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday morning in the murder trial for the three men accused of racially profiling Ahmaud Arbery, arming themselves, jumping in trucks, chasing him down, blocking his path in the streets and then shooting him to death in the middle of a street in a deadly episode recorded on video last year in rural Georgia. This moment has been a long time coming for Arbery’s loved ones and attorneys representing his family, who have been seeking justice in a case that was seemingly covered up by his accused murderers and their apparent accomplices in law enforcement, all with a cruel, allegedly racist twist. The imagery associated with the horrific narrative surrounding the shooting and accused murderers, father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael, harkened back to harrowing tales of racist white mob justice in the Jim Crow South. More than one year later, ahead of the pending murder trial, Arbery’s mother refuses chooses to recognize the positive instead of allowing herself to be consumed by the obvious negative on the bad on the grim anniversary of her son’s death at the young age of 25. “It still hurts that I lost Ahmaud,” Wanda Cooper-Jones told the Atlanta Journal Constitution in an interview published Feb. 23, the anniversary of her son’s death. “Knowing that Ahmaud was possibly involved in change tells me he didn’t lose his life in vain.” The events leading up to and including Arbery’s killing in the town of Brunswick have been unfolding in a complicated and tangled timeline amplified by an explosive collision of the South’s good old boy network with a very focused and resolute movement for Black lives. Source: Getty Images To say that the story has developed slowly would be an understatement. After all, the McMichaels were arrested and charged with murder more than two months after Arbery was killed. It would take another two weeks before William “Roddie” Bryan, the man who filmed the shooting, would meet the same fate and be taken into custody and also be charged with felony murder along with criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. That last charge likely stemmed from his role in using the vehicle he was in to trap Arbery between his and the McMichaels’ trucks as seen on the video recorded by Bryan that was shown to the world when it leaked — inexplicably by Gregory McMichaels — and posted to social media in May. The shooting has resulted in a series of Georgia’s district attorneys playing an unfortunate game of hot potato with the case, which has been marred from the start with a web of conflicts of interest from prosecutors whose associations with each other and the accused murderers have contributed to a massive delay of justice. One of the central themes emerging from the case is Georgia’s glaring lack of hate crime laws. The case merits a hate crime charge, lawyers representing Arbery’s family have maintained. Civil rights attorneys S. Lee Merritt and Ben Crump have been calling for the Department of Justice to get involved to determine whether federal hate crime charges are warranted against Gregory McMichael, who actually pulled the trigger and killed Arbery. https://twitter.com/CNNTonight/status/1263323939020967936?s=20 Another persistent theme in the case has been the revelation of an incestuous and possibly corrupt relationship between multiple district attorneys’ offices across the state of Georgia, resulting in three prosecutors being forced to recuse themselves because of conflicts of interest. Because of those themes, all 14 of Georgia’s Congressional representatives sent a letter last year to then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr encouraging the use of “all possible Federal resources to achieve full justice, transparency, and accountability in the case of Mr. Ahmaud Arbery.” https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/1258156220969398272?s=20 There was also the apparent campaign to criminalize Arbery in death to contend with, as a flurry of reputation-damaging yet ultimately irrelevant references to his past encounters with law enforcement that could never justify the killing of an unarmed man fueled by racist suspicions. That was the case when a video of police harassing Arbery from 2017 was widely published. This was the same police department that decided against making any arrests in Arbery’s killing until federal intervention pressured them to do so more than two months later. Keep reading to find a complete and detailed timeline of the events that led up to Arbery’s shooting and those that have transpired since as his family works to achieve some semblance of justice in their loved one’s killing committed in unabashed cold blood.
‘Long, Dirty Toenails’: Heartless Defense Attorney Disrespects Ahmaud Arbery During Closing Arguments was originally published on newsone.com