SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the hate crime convictions of three white men who chased Ahmaud Arbery through his Georgia subdivision in pickup trucks before one of them shot and killed the fleeing black man with a shotgun.
It took a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals more than a year for the defendants’ lawyers in 2024 to In March, they urged judges to throw out the case, saying the men’s history of racist text messages and social media posts did not prove they targeted Arbery because of his race.
in 2022 federal prosecutors used those reports and text messages to convince jurors that Arbery’s killing was motivated by “repressed racial anger.”
The appeals panel’s opinion, written by Judge Elizabeth L. Branch, said prosecutors had shown at trial that “each defendant had sustained prejudice” and that the evidence was sufficient “for a reasonable juror to conclude that Arbery’s race was a determining factor” in the deadly neighborhood manhunt.
Even if the appeals judges had overturned the hate crime convictions, the trio were not immediately released from prison. That’s because they’re also serving life sentences for murder after being convicted in a Georgia state court.
The video of Arbery’s killing sparked national outrage
in 2020 February 23 father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery, 25, after they spotted him running in their neighborhood just outside the port city of Brunswick. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined in the chase and recorded a video of Travis McberMichael shooting at the incarcerated Travis.
More than two months passed without an arrest before Bryan’s video of the killing hit the Internet. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police as the outcry over Arbery’s death became part of a national outcry over racial injustice. Accusations soon followed.
in 2021 At the end of the year, a state court convicted all three men of the murders. After a second trial in US District Court in 2022. A jury initially found the trio guilty of hate crimes and attempted kidnapping.
Greg McMichael’s hate crime attorney, AJ Balbo, declined to comment on the appeal. Attorneys for Bryan and Travis McMichael did not immediately return a phone call and email. mail messages.
The defense said the racist messages did not prove racism against Arbery
In their federal appeals, attorneys for Bryan and Greg McMichael criticized prosecutors’ use of more than two dozen social media posts and text messages, as well as witness testimony, that showed all three men used racial slurs or otherwise denigrated black people.
Bryan’s attorney, Pete Theodocion, said the statements were so offensive that prosecutors were able to sway jurors without proving a racist intent to harm Arbery himself.
Balbo, Greg McMichael’s attorney, argued that his client initiated the pursuit of Arbery because he mistakenly suspected him of being a fugitive felon. The McMichaels had seen security camera footage in previous months that showed Arbery entering a neighboring house under construction.
The 11th Circuit judges rejected those arguments, noting there was no evidence Arbery had committed any crimes in the men’s neighborhood. He was unarmed and had no stolen property when he was killed.
In Travis McMichael’s appeal, attorney Amy Lee Copeland did not dispute the jury’s finding that he was motivated by racism. Social media evidence includes 2018 A Facebook comment that Travis McMichael made on a video of a black man pranking a white man. In his writing, he used expletives and racial slurs to kill him.
Instead, Copeland based his appeal on legal technicalities. She said prosecutors failed to prove that the streets in the Satilla Shores subdivision where Arbery was killed were public roads, as alleged in the indictment charging the men. The 11th Circuit rejected her arguments.
The trial judge sentenced both McMichaels to life in prison for the hate crimes, plus additional terms — 10 years for Travis McMichael and seven years for his father — for firing weapons during violent crimes. Bryan was given a lighter sentence of 35 years in prison for the hate crime, in part because he was unarmed and saved cellphone video that became crucial evidence.