The Superior Court of Glynn County, Georgia ruled on Friday that Ahmaud Arbery’s mental health records could not be used as evidence in the trial against the three white men accused of killing the 25-year-old Black man.

The defendants, Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan, chased Arbery in a pickup truck and fatally shot him in February 2020 while Arbery was running on a public street in a Georgia neighborhood. Arbery was unarmed. The defendants face charges of felony murder and false imprisonment.

Defense attorneys argue that the three men did not commit any crimes and that they shot Arbery in self-defense due to their suspicion that Arbery was a burglar. Defense attorneys sought to share Arbery’s 2018 mental health records from Gateway Behavior Services, asserting that the records are vital to the defense’s claim of self-defense. Friday’s ruling against the use of the mental health records as trial evidence limits the defense attorney’s efforts to depict Arbery as aggressive or troubled.

Prosecutors argued against the inclusion of Arbery’s mental health records because the defendants did not know Arbery, or anything about Arbery’s past, before the shooting.

Superior Court Judge William R. Walmsley held that the defense’s desire to use mental health records in open court does not override Arbery’s “mental health privilege,” even in death.

Walmsley further explained that Gateway’s mental health evaluation of Arbery was “questionable” because the evaluation was performed by a registered nurse with no formal training in mental health. The findings in the records were reached during one visit to Gateway, and there was not a follow-up visit.

Walmsley explained that the “questionable” records could unfairly prejudice the jury. “The introduction of the victim’s medical records would tend to create confusion for the jury as to whether it was the Defendants’ actions on February 23, 2020, or the victim’s questionable mental health diagnosis that is to be considered,” Walmsley wrote. “There is no evidence that the victim was suffering from any mental heath issue, or had otherwise decompensated, on February 23, 2020,” the date Arbery was killed.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin on October 18.