Ahmaud Arbery Murderers Found Guilty of Federal Hate Crimes | lovebscott.com

Ahmaud Arbery Murderers Found Guilty of Federal Hate Crimes

A federal jury in Georgia on Tuesday found the three men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery guilty of hate crime and other charges.

via: Revolt

The three men — Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. — were sentenced to life in prison last month for Arbery’s death. With the new conviction, they could each face an additional life sentence.

As reported by REVOLT, the McMichaels and Bryan were charged with one count each of interference with rights and attempted kidnapping in the federal trial. Father and son Gregory and Travis were also charged with one count of using, carrying and brandishing a gun during and in relation to a crime of violence; and Travis was additionally charged with firing the weapon.

During the trial, federal prosecutors argued that the McMichaels and Bryan, who are white; pursued and attacked 25-year-old Arbery in February of 2020 because of his race. Over a dozen witnesses testified that the three men made derogatory remarks about Black people and text messages showed Bryan and Travis using racial slurs.

Prosecutors also claimed that Gregory once said, “Those Blacks are all nothing but trouble,” while discussing the 2015 death of civil rights activist Julian Bond.

Earlier this month, Judge Lisa Godbey Wood rejected the terms of a plea deal for the McMichaels, which would have allowed Travis to serve the first 30 years of his life sentence in a federal prison, rather than in a harsher state prison. The judge rejected the deal just days before jury selection for their federal trial began.

The three men are also still named in a federal lawsuit filed by Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones. The suit also names multiple Glynn County police officers, the county’s former police chief, former district attorney and the initial state prosecutor.

Justice was served.

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