SAVANNAH, Georgia A federal appeals court has upheld the hate crime convictions of three white men who chased and fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, while he was jogging through their neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia.
The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals delivered its ruling more than a year after hearing arguments from the defendants’ attorneys, who claimed that racist text messages and social media posts did not prove Arbery was targeted because of his race.
In a detailed opinion by Judge Elizabeth L. Branch, the three-judge panel concluded that prosecutors had presented enough evidence showing “each of the defendants held longstanding prejudice,” allowing jurors to reasonably determine that Arbery’s race was the decisive factor in the deadly pursuit. Federal prosecutors had previously told jurors that the defendants’ racist remarks demonstrated “pent-up racial anger” that motivated the February 2020 killing.
Even with their federal appeals denied, the convicted men father and son Greg and Travis McMichael, and their neighbour William “Roddie” Bryan will remain in prison, as they are already serving life sentences for murder following their state convictions in Georgia.
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