Did the men who followed and shot a jogger in Georgia target and kill him because he was Black, or as the result of some kind of a racism-free vigilantism? In appeal, counsel for the three men will argue the latter.
The three men currently serving sentences for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery have asked the courts to reverse their federal convictions for hate crimes, Russ Bynum reports for the Associated Press.
Their argument? Their documented history of racist comments doesn’t automatically mean they targeted and killed Arbery because of his race.
Arbery was followed by the three men while jogging through a Georgia neighborhood in 2020: Greg McMichael and his son Travis McMichael followed Arbery and were later joined by William Bryan. The three allegedly assumed Arbery was a criminal targeting a nearby construction site.
Travis McMichael shot Arbery with a shotgun and, shockingly, no one was arrested for the killing until months later when Bryan’s video of the incident leaked online.
Last summer, while admitting videos of the incident into evidence, it came out that none of the three defendants attempted to render any aid to Arbery – even though he was initially still breathing following the shooting.
One witness testified that Greg McMichael went on a racist rant to him and his wife.
“All these blacks are nothing but trouble; I wish they would all die,” the witness recounted McMichael saying around 2015, after he expressed frustration that a Georgia civil rights advocate, Julian Bond, had not died sooner.
“Every crime committed against an African American by a man who has used racist language in the past is not a hate crime,” Pete Theodocian wrote on behalf of defendant William Bryan.
According to current court records in USA v. William Bryan, Bryan’s defense has so far failed to submit a file appendix as part of his appeal. A notice from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Monday, March 20, said that Bryan’s counsel has 14 days to file the appendix or his appeal will be dismissed.
On Monday, the U.S. filed an unopposed motion for an extension of time to submit their appellee brief.
The federal offenses the three were convicted of include a hate crime, attempted kidnapping and use of a firearm during a crime of violence. The three have also appealed their murder convictions in Glynn County, Georgia.
from The Crime Report https://ift.tt/ijBleDA
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