Attorney Page Pate, a criminal defense attorney who has been representing clients charged in
serious cases for over 25 years, has spoken with the media numerous times to discuss the trial of the three men charged in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, Georgia.
In this interview, USA Today talks to Page about the federal hate crime trial of Greg
McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan, who were previously convicted of murder and other charges at trial in state court. The men have also recently been convicted in federal court of hate crimes and attempted kidnapping.
Regarding the verdict in the federal hate crime trial, Page says “I think it’s hard to overemphasize the significance of what happened today…We had a mostly rural South Georgia jury deliberate for less than half a day in a three-defendant, multiple-count indictment, return across-the-board guilty verdicts and elect as their foreperson the only Black male on the jury to deliver the verdict.”
Page has an office in Brunswick, Georgia, and has watched the Arbery case unfold in the community. Page says that the local community has taken a “180-degree turn” in two years, from a district attorney’s office that attempted to sweep the case under the rug to a new district attorney, a new police chief and convictions in state and federal court. “Even though I’m sitting in the same place I was two years ago when this happened, everything around me is different…”
