Hate-crime convictions upheld in death of Ahmaud Arbery

Killing of Black man fleeing three white assailants sparked national outrage.

- By Russ Bynum

TRAVIS McMICHAE, left, William “Roddie” Bryan and Gregory McMichael.

(Associated Press)

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the hate-crime convictions of three white men who chased Ahmaud Arbery through their Georgia subdivision with pickup trucks before one of them killed the running Black man with a shotgun.

A three-judge panel of the llth US. Circuit Court of Appeals took well over a year to rule after attorneys for the defendants urged the judges in March 2024 to overturn the case, arguing the men’s history of racist text messages and social media posts failed to prove they targeted Arbery because of his race.

Federal prosecutors used those posts and messages in 2022 to persuade a jury that Arbery’s killing was motivated by “pent-up racial anger.”

The appellate panel's opinion, written by Judge Elizabeth L. Branch, said prosecutors at the trial showed “that each of the defendants held longstanding prejudice,” and that evidence was sufficient for “a reasonable juror to find that Arbery’s race was the determinative factor” for the deadly neighborhood chase.