Three white men imprisoned for the murder of black jogger Ahmaud Arbery are appealing their federal hate crime convictions — with two arguing the shooting outside Brunswick, Ga., wasn’t racially motivated.
“Every crime committed against an African American by a person who has used racist language up to now shouldn’t be a hate crime,” the appellate temporary written on behalf of William “Roddie” Bryan read.
Bryan, now 53, joined father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael on Feb. 23, 2020, once they chased Arbery, 25, of their vehicles through the suburban Satilla Shores neighborhood.
After the trio used their cars to dam Arbery’s path, Travis McMichael, 36, assaulted him with a shotgun before fatally shooting him.
Bryan recorded the confrontation on his cellphone, and the video later went viral.
All three men were convicted of Arbery’s murder in November 2021.
A couple of months later, they were found guilty of federal hate crimes.
An appellate temporary filed by attorneys for Gregory McMichael, 67, alleges the previous investigator pursued Arbery because he recognized him from footage of a possible intruder at a close-by construction site — not because he was black.
“[Race was] of no greater import to Gregory McMichael’s calculus than Mr. Arbery’s biological sex, the shorts he was wearing, his hairstyle, or his tattoos,” the temporary argues.
Gregory McMichael’s lawyer, A.J. Bilbao, also asserted his client wouldn’t have chased Arbery if he was a black woman.
Meanwhile, Bryan’s lawyer, Pete Theodocion, argues the previous mechanic, who didn’t 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,” Theodocian asserts.
In the course of the trio’s murder trial, the prosecution presented text messages and social media posts during which all three men used racial slurs.
In a single 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 during which Travis McMichael vowed to “kill” a black man depicted in a prank video.
Theodocion, nonetheless, claims Bryan “was not obsessive about African Americans resembling [Travis was],” CNN reported.
Travis McMichael’s own appeal doesn’t deny the shooting’s racial motivation, but as an alternative 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. In keeping with The Associated Press, all three men have also filed pending appeals of their murder convictions.
On the time of his death, Arbery, a former highschool football star, was saving up to return to high school to turn into an electrician. He incessantly jogged as a type of exercise.
With Post wires
