ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court has overturned a lower court ruling that would have excluded a statement about not wanting to go back to jail made by the suspect in the 2021 murder of beloved Atlanta bartender Mariam Abdulrab.
Abdulrab was kidnapped and killed in an attempted rape in 2021, according to police. Demarcus Brinkley was later arrested and charged on 15 counts including murder, kidnapping and attempt to commit rape.
According to the state Supreme Court ruling, as he fled from police, Brinkley allegedly told his mother "that he did not want to pull over for police because he did not want to go back to prison."
The lower court ruled to exclude that statement from Brinkley's eventual trial, under a provision known as Rule 403. The rule, according to a summary of the case, is "essentially, that evidence may be excluded from a trial if its probative value is substantially outweighed by how it might unfairly prejudice or confuse a jury."
Basically, a judge may rule that a jury won't hear evidence if the value of the evidence is "substantially outweighed" by how it might bias or confuse a jury.
But the Supreme Court said the lower court erred in how it applied the rule.
"The court’s order did not measure admissibility by that standard — it said only that the ‘prejudicial effect’ of the evidence and the risk of confusing the issues ‘outweighed’ the probative value of the evidence. It did not determine that the probative value was ‘substantially’ outweighed by those dangers, or limit its focus on prejudice to only the ‘unfair’ prejudice, as the Rule requires,” Presiding Justice Nels S.D. Peterson wrote.
It's not clear if the lower court judge may still exclude the statement, so long as that judge correctly applies the standard as outlined by the Supreme Court.
"Mariam's Law," named in Abdulrab's honor, was passed and signed earlier this year; the law increases penalties for repeat sex offenders.
Abdulrab, who worked as a bartender, was returning home from work on an August morning nearly two years ago when she was kidnapped and found dead nearly an hour later. According to a previous release from advocates in the case, the accused killer "failed to undergo a risk level assessment from the Georgia Sex Offender Registration Review Board" and "spent several years in prison and was released less than a year before Mariam’s kidnapping."
Abdulrab's younger brother, Ali Abdulrab, previously told 11Alive that their family doesn't want this to happen to anyone else.
"I saw how it’s affecting our family and friends still. It’s heartbreaking, and no other family should have to go through that," he said.