Ahmaud Arbery’s killers get a March court date to argue appeals of their hate crime convictions

The three white men were convicted in the killing of Arbery, a Black man

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Three white men convicted of hate crimes for chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia neighborhood in 2020 will have their appeals heard by a federal court in March.

The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments in the case for March 27 in Atlanta. Attorneys for father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, are asking the court to throw out 

Greg McMichael told police he initiated the chase because he recognized Arbery from security camera videos that in prior months showed the young Black man entering a neighboring home under construction. None of the videos showed him stealing, and Arbery was unarmed and had no stolen property when he was killed.

Bryan joined in after seeing the McMichaels’ truck pursuing a running Arbery past his house.

Prosecutors argued at the trial that the McMichaels and Bryan chased and shot Arbery out of “pent-up racial anger.”

Evidence showed Bryan had used racist slurs in text messages saying he was upset that his daughter was dating a Black man. A witness testified Greg McMichael angrily remarked on the 2015 death of civil rights activist Julian Bond: “All those Blacks are nothing but trouble.” In 2018, Travis McMichael commented on a Facebook video of a Black man playing a prank on a white person: “I’d kill that f—-ing n—-r.”

Both McMichaels received life prison sentences in the hate crimes case, while Bryan was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Also pending are appeals by all three men of their murder convictions in Glynn County Superior Court.

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