Three white men who were convicted of murdering black jogger Ahmaud Arbery are appealing their federal hate crime convictions. Two of them are arguing that the shooting was not racially motivated.
William “Roddie” Bryan, who recorded the confrontation on his cellphone, joined father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael on February 23, 2020, when they chased Arbery, 25, in their vehicles through the suburban Satilla Shores neighborhood.
After the trio used their cars to block Arbery’s path, Travis McMichael, 36, assaulted him with a shotgun before fatally shooting him. Arbery was jogging through the neighborhood before the attack.
All three men were convicted of Arbery’s murder in November 2021. A few months later, they were found guilty of federal hate crimes.
An appellate brief filed by attorneys for Gregory McMichael, 67, alleges that the former investigator pursued Arbery because he recognized him from footage of a possible intruder at a nearby construction site, not because he was black.
Meanwhile, Bryan’s lawyer, Pete Theodocion, argues that the former mechanic, who did not know the McMichaels, “had every right to assume” Arbery was a criminal once he saw his neighbors pursuing him. “Arbery never called out for help or gave any signs that he was the victim of an unprovoked attack,” Theodocion asserts.
During the trio’s murder trial, the prosecution presented text messages and social media posts in which all three men used racial slurs. In one example, Bryan used a racist insult in messages about his frustration that his daughter was dating a black man.
The state’s attorneys also referred to a 2018 Facebook comment in which Travis McMichael vowed to “kill” a black man depicted in a prank video.
Travis McMichael’s own appeal does not deny the shooting’s racial motivation but instead questions whether the state adequately proved Arbery was pursued and killed on public streets.
The US Justice Department has 30 days to file responses to the hate crime appeals. All three men have also filed pending appeals of their murder convictions.
At the time of his death, Arbery, a former high school football star, was saving up to go back to school to become an electrician. He frequently jogged as a form of exercise.
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