Defense Attorney, Kevin Gough

Blog Ahmaud Arbery 11/1/21

There are several blog posts that need to be written about Kevin Gough, the defense attorney for William Bryan.  Bryan is the man who joined in the chase of Ahmaud Arbery, tried to pin Arbery in with his (Bryan’s) truck, and actually at one point hit Arbery with the truck.  Bryan is also the man who videoed the incident and then through an attorney released the video because he thought it would help his case.

Gough has complained in open court for two weeks about the “protestors” outside the Courthouse in Glynn County, Georgia.  I have been to the courthouse several times in the past two weeks.  The most people I have seen at the courthouse were there for a march the weekend before jury selection.

On that occasion, 16 October, there were approximately 80 people gathered outside the courthouse.  Probably a third of them were media or County personnel.  There have been no loud, unruly demonstrations outside the courthouse.  For the most part, people are sitting in lawn chairs, talking and eating.

But, Gough, last week, seemed to believe that the jury pool was going to be tainted because those people were outside the court, and because an organization put up a banner with John Lewis’ picture on it, asking people to vote. 

When he put this matter before the judge, Chatham County Superior Court Judge Timothy R. Walmsley, Gough was told that if he wanted to curtail the First Amendment Rights of the people in front of the courthouse, to make a formal motion. 

Gough has also read before the court, statements made by the Arbery family and by the Arbery family attorney.  He is maintaining that these statements could have an effect on the jury. 

Then, Gough complained in court that there weren’t enough “good ole’ boys” or “six pack Joes” in the jury pool, people like his client, William Bryan.  Then, in an interview given to Court TV later, Gough explained the difficulty in defining exactly what the demographics of these “good old boys” or “six-pace Joes” were.  He then concluded the interview by saying that if you couldn’t define exactly who these jurors were, it wasn’t much use.  What?

I sincerely don’t know what Gough is trying to do with these antics.  The other two sets of defense attorneys seem to be trying to win the case using more conventional tactics.  I cannot see how these tactics will benefit Bryan, but I’m open to having it explained to me.