Three Georgia men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery found guilty of hate crimes

 

Travis McMichael, William Bryan, and Greg McMichael are found guilty of hatecrimes 

Three white men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery found guilty of hate crimes

By Edward Era Barbacena

The three white men who chased down and murdered black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in what was called a “modern-day lynching” were found guilty of federal hate crimes Tuesday.

Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael, ages 66 and 35 respectively, and William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, were already sentenced to life in prison for Arbery’s murder in January in a Georgia court.

The federal jury of eight white people, three black people and one Latino person deliberated on the hate-crime charges for less than a day, announcing the verdict Tuesday morning.

The case was handed over to the jury Monday afternoon after a weeklong trial in US District Court in Brunswick, Ga., where prosecutors argued the three convicted killers clearly harbored racist beliefs, using previous racist text messages and social-media posts as proof.

On Feb. 23, 2020, the McMichaels grabbed their weapons when they witnessed Arbery jogging past their home and chased him in their truck. The killing, in which Travis McMichael fired the fatal shot, was captured on cellphone footage that Bryan recorded after joining the father and son in the chase. Arbery had no weapons and committed no crimes. 

FBI intelligence analyst Amy Vaughan told the court during the federal trial that Travis McMichael repeatedly used the “N-word” in private conversations and on social media. Once, commenting on a Facebook video of a black man pranking a white person, he wrote: “I’d kill that f–king n—-r.” 

Bryan’s messages showed him mocking Martin Luther King Jr. day, expressing anger that his daughter was dating a black man, repeatedly mocking black people’s lips and using the “N-word,” the analyst said.

Greg McMichael’s private messages were encrypted and unable to be accessed, but prosecutors brought up a Facebook post where he shared a meme that claimed Irish people were treated far worse than enslaved black Americans.

Witnesses also testified in the trial that they heard the three men make racist remarks and go on tirades against black people.

Auhmud Arbery

Wednesday marks the two-year anniversary since Arbery’s murder, which his father has called a “modern-day lynching.”

At the sentencing for the three men’s murder trial, Judge Timothy Walmsley said, “Ahmaud Arbery was hunted down and shot.”