Ahmaud Arbery Murderers Travis, Greg McMichael, William Roddie Bryan Found Guilty of Hate Crimes

Three white men killed people Ahmaud Arbery, a young black man 25 years oldon the streets of Satilla Shores near Brunswick, Georgiawas found guilty in a federal hate crime trial on Tuesday.

Federal lawsuit against Travis McMichael, Father Gregory and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, focusing on what caused them to commit murder – a crime for which they were previously convicted in state court. Specifically, federal prosecutors sought to prove they were motivated by racial hatred when they used a pickup truck to chase, cut, and gun down Arbery on February 23, 2020.

Already serving time in prison for felony murder at the state level, the men face federal charges of interfering with Arbery’s public street access because of his race, as well as his negative background. kidnapping plot. McMichaels was also charged with firearms in connection with the fatal shooting; Travis McMichael fired the shots that killed Arbery.

The ruling marks one of the final chapters of a horrifying story that began with violent vigilance in the first days of the coronavirus pandemic and emerges at a time that looks like it could be swept under the sheet. carpet.

Many local prosecutors — one of whom previously hired Greg McMichael, a former police officer, as an investigator — dropped the investigation, including a former district attorney who is now facing charges. own indictment. Meanwhile, the frenetic early weeks of containment may have limited media exposure to the case, which emerged months before George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, prompting pushed protests across the country.

After a state trial that made little mention of race, federal prosecutors have presented a wealth of evidence of vile racism by men, including the repeated use of the word n in the weeks before the shooting happened.

Federal prosecutors were previously set to strike a plea agreement with McMichaels on hate crime charges. That would ensure they pay lengthy prison sentences in addition to their state sentences, which could theoretically be overturned on appeal. But the Arberys protested, seemingly convinced that federal detention represented too much of a place of detention for the killers, who would otherwise have to reside in state prison. .