Ahmaud Arbery’s parents relieved after court upholds hate crime convictions

The parents of Ahmaud Arbery said they were relieved to learn an appeals court upheld the hate crime convictions of the three men responsible for their son’s 2020 murder.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its ruling Friday, nearly two years after attorneys for Greg McMichael, his son Travis and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan sought to have their federal convictions overturned.

(From left) Travis McMichael, William "Roddie" Bryan and Gregory McMichael had their hate crime convictions upheld. (AP Photo/Pool, File)

“Everybody knew this was racially motivated,” Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday afternoon. “All you got to do is look at the video. That told everything.”

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, said she received a call from prosecutors informing her of Friday’s ruling.

In March of last year, attorneys for the men argued race was not a factor in their decision to arm themselves Feb. 23, 2020, hop in pickup trucks and chase after Arbery after spotting the unarmed 25-year-old running through the Satilla Shores neighborhood just outside Brunswick.

But federal prosecutors urged the Atlanta appeals court to uphold the hate crimes convictions, arguing Arbery would still be alive today if he wasn’t Black.

In the wake of Ahmaud Arbery’s death, Georgia enacted a hate crime statute and largely repealed its centuries-old citizens arrest law used as a defense in the state murder case. (Courtesy)

“They killed Ahmaud because of the color of his skin,” his mother, Wanda Cooper Jones said. “And they will never get out of jail.”

In late 2021, all three men were first convicted of murder and other charges in state court. They’re currently serving life sentences in separate state penitentiaries. They were tried the following year on hate crime charges in a federal courthouse down the street.

“I would rather them do state time,” Arbery’s mother said, arguing conditions there are tougher than in federal prisons.

In the wake of Arbery’s death, Georgia enacted a hate crime statute and largely repealed its centuries-old citizens arrest law used as a defense in the state murder case.

The men told police they suspected Arbery of burglarizing a nearby home under construction. Surveillance footage showed Arbery ventured into the home on occasion during his runs through the neighborhood, but he never stole anything. Arbery also wasn’t the only curious neighbor checking out that site: surveillance footage also showed a white couple exploring the site, and Greg McMichael also ventured in.

The McMichaels grabbed their guns, jumped in Travis McMichael’s pickup truck and chased after Arbery. Bryan, who was working on his porch at the time, hopped in his own pickup and joined the chase.

He recorded the harrowing footage of the younger McMichael repeatedly shooting Arbery during a tussle over the shotgun in the road.

Unlike the state murder trial held in 2021, federal prosecutors centered their case around race. Numerous witnesses testified about the three white defendants’ hateful comments and bigoted attitudes toward Black people, and prosecutors showed all three had a history of using racial slurs.

Cooper Jones said not a day goes by that she doesn’t think of her son. She moved from coastal Georgia to Fairburn a few years ago, saying she couldn’t stand to be back in Brunswick because she was constantly reminded of Arbery’s murder.

She currently runs the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation, which she started for help advocate for young Black men in Georgia.

The appeals court’s decision on Friday was partially split, with all three judges agreeing to uphold the hate crime convictions. But U.S. District Judge Victoria M. Calvert, sitting on the panel by designation, took issue with a portion of the majority’s finding on one element of the kidnapping claims.

To uphold the kidnapping convictions, prosecutors had to show that Bryan and the McMichaels transported Arbery to another state or used a means of interstate commerce. The majority found that, because the trio had used their trucks to chase Arbery down and trucks are a means of traveling from one state to another, the prosecutors’ claims held up.

But Calvert said the finding was absurd.

“I believe the majority’s holding raises constitutional concerns about the balance between state and federal prosecution,” Calvert wrote in her dissent.