A jury in Brunswick, Ga. found defendant Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and their neighbor William "Roddy" Bryan guilty on all counts at a federal hate crimes trial.
The jury deliberated for four hours. At the center of the case was a question of whether race was a motivating factor as to why the three defendants chased and shot Ahmed Arbery as he ran through his coastal Georgia neighborhood in February 2020.
The defendants were charged with violating Arbery's civil rights and kidnapping, and for the McMichaels, an additional charge of using a firearm to commit the crime. The three men were convicted of Arbery's murder in a state trial last year and sentenced to life in prison.
Following the federal decision on Tuesday, members of Arbery's family took up arms and left the courthouse.
"As a mother, I will never be well," said his mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones. "They gave us a small sense of victory, but we will never get victory because Ahmed is dead."
Federal charges carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The defendants will have 14 days to file an appeal and the sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date.
Prosecutors highlight racist digital content shared by defendants
To plead guilty to this hate crime charge, federal prosecutors were tasked with proving to the jury that the defendants targeted Arbery because he was black. For four days last week, witnesses recalled racist conversations with Greg and Travis McMichael, and prosecutors spent the entire morning of the trial going over racist and sometimes violent material, including texts and videos from defendants' digital footprints .
"If Ahmed was another white man jogging, would it have happened the way he did? If Ahmed had not been using public roads, would it have happened?" Prosecutor Christopher Peres asked in the government's closing arguments on Monday.
He argued that racial slurs and memes, while not illegal in themselves, could help inform jurors about the mindset of defendants when they saw Arbery walk the Satilla shores that day.
Perez said he worked on the racial perceptions, racial outrage and racial anger that had been building up over the years.
"They didn't have to talk about it. They knew what they were going to do," Perez told the jurors. "They grabbed their guns and followed him."
Defense lawyers said their clients had valid reasons to pursue Arbery
Travis McMichael's attorney, Amy Copeland, said, "Would this have happened to a white man? Yes," said Amy Copeland. She encouraged jurors to consider evidence that was not presented: The government never called any black witnesses to share their client's stories of racism, she argued, and that There was no evidence that Travis McMichael belonged to any white supremacist group. Copeland declined to call any witnesses to testify for Travis McMichael during the trial.
None of the attorneys disputed any racism in their clients' digital footprints, and even personally denied these views, while maintaining that the defendants had no access to Arbery's pursuit. There were legitimate reasons to do so, after identifying him as a man seen on surveillance cameras inside a house at a construction site at night.
Bryan's attorney, Pete Theodosian, tried to emphasize the differences between his client and the other two, telling jurors that Bryan was "not trying to be Johnny Law-enforcer," but "his instinct told him that people Don't chase like this "unless they've done something wrong, and in some cases terribly wrong."
“These defendants saw Ahmed as less than a human, less than an animal,” prosecutor Lyons told jurors in her final rebuttal that Judge Lisa Godbe Wood sent the jury out to deliberate on Monday afternoon. .
Lyons insisted he showed no remorse as Arbery was bleeding in the street.
"I think the DOJ [Department of Justice] presented its case well," Ahmaud Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told reporters outside the courthouse on Monday.
"I'm so emotional. It's been so exhausting, and I'm grateful it's almost over," she said, noting that she's on time for the decision this Wednesday for the second anniversary of her son's death. Was hopeful
February 23 is now officially known as Ahmaud Arbery Day in the state of Georgia.