A U.S. federal appeals court has affirmed the hate crime convictions of three white men who pursued Ahmaud Arbery with pickup trucks in their Georgia neighborhood, resulting in the fatal shooting of the Black man. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rendered its decision more than a year after the defendants’ lawyers sought to overturn the case in March 2024, arguing that the men’s history of racist text messages and social media posts did not demonstrate that they targeted Arbery based on his race.
Prosecutors utilized these posts and messages from 2022 to convince a jury that Arbery’s killing stemmed from racial animosity. The panel of judges, led by Judge Elizabeth L. Branch, concluded that the evidence presented at trial demonstrated the defendants’ deep-seated prejudice, allowing a reasonable juror to determine that Arbery’s race was the primary factor in the deadly pursuit in the neighborhood.
Even if the hate crime convictions had been overturned by the appeals judges, the trio would still be serving life sentences for murder following their conviction in a Georgia state court.
Father and son, Greg and Travis McMichael, armed themselves and chased the 25-year-old Arbery in their pickup truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood near Brunswick on February 23, 2020. A neighbor, William (Roddie) Bryan, joined the pursuit and recorded a video of Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery at close range. The video was leaked online more than two months later, leading to public outrage and national attention, resulting in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation taking over the case from local authorities.
All three men were found guilty of murder by a state court in late 2021. Following a second trial in U.S. District Court in early 2022, a jury convicted them of hate crimes and attempted kidnapping.
In their federal appeals, attorneys for Bryan and Greg McMichael criticized the prosecution’s use of numerous social media posts and text messages that contained racist language, arguing that the jury was swayed without proving a racist intent to harm Arbery. However, the 11th Circuit judges rejected these arguments, emphasizing that there was no evidence of Arbery committing any crimes in the neighborhood at the time of the incident.
Travis McMichael’s attorney did not dispute that his client’s actions were motivated by racism but focused the appeal on legal technicalities, which the court also dismissed. The trial judge sentenced both McMichaels to life imprisonment for hate crimes, with additional years for using guns during the crimes. Bryan received a 35-year prison sentence for his involvement, reflecting a lighter punishment due to his lack of arms during the incident and his preservation of the crucial video evidence.
