Savannah, Georgia– A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the hate crime convictions of three white men who were stalked Ahmaud Arbery He crossed their Georgia subdivision in pickup trucks before one of them killed the fleeing black man with a rifle.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals took more than a year to rule after attorneys for the defendants He urged the judges in March 2024 to dismiss the case, arguing that the men’s history of racist text messages and social media posts failed to prove that they targeted Arbery because of his race.
Federal prosecutors used those posts and messages in 2022 to convince a jury that they had a motive for Arbery’s killing “Pent-up racial anger.”
Even if the appeals judges had overturned their hate crime convictions, the three faced no immediate reprieve from prison. That’s because they are also serving a life sentence for murder after being convicted in a Georgia state court.
Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and used a pickup truck to pursue 25-year-old Arbery after seeing him running in their neighborhood outside the coastal city of Brunswick on February 23, 2020. A neighbor, William “Rudy” Bryan, joined the chase and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range.
More than two months passed without arrests, until Brian’s graphic video of the killing leaked online. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police as outrage over Arbery’s death became part of a national protest over racial injustice. Charges quickly followed.
It was the three men He was convicted of murder by the state court in late 2021. After a second trial in US District Court in early 2022, the jury found that the trio Guilty of hate crimes And attempted kidnapping.
Greg McMichael’s attorney, AJ Balbo, declined to comment on the appeal ruling. Attorneys for Brian and Travis McMichael did not immediately respond to phone and email messages.