The three men convicted in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty of federal hate crimes Tuesday morning.
A jury found that father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael, along with their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan Jr., violated Arbery’s civil rights and targeted him because he was Black.
Previously, the McMichaels accepted a plea deal that would have allowed them to serve the first 30 years of their life sentence in federal prison. However, the judge nixed the deal after learning it was made despite Arbery’s family’s approval. It remains unclear whether Bryan was also offered a plea deal.
On the state level, the McMichaels were sentenced last month to life in prison without parole for fatally shooting Arbery as he jogged in Brunswick, Georgia, in February 2020. Bryan received life with the possibility of parole for trapping Arbery with his truck while filming the deadly encounter.
During the federal trial, evidence was presented showing that Gregory McMichael — who shot Arbery in the chest — and Bryan had used racial epithets in text messages and messages sent on social media.
According to CNN, Gregory McMichael texted a friend in March 2019 that he loved his job because it did not have Black people.
“They ruin everything. That’s why I love what I do now. Not a n*****r in sight,” he wrote to the friend.
Additionally, an analysis of Bryan’s social media recovered messages in which Bryan used the n-word and “bootlip,” which is a racist term to describe Black people.
The Savannah Morning News reported that it took a jury four hours to convict the McMichaels and Bryan.
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