The three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty of federal hate crimes for violating their 25-year-old victim’s civil rights and targeting him because he was Black.
The jury found Travis McMichael, 35; Travis’s father, Gregory McMichael, 65; and William “Roddie” Bryan, 51, guilty of one count of interference with rights and with one count of attempted kidnapping. Travis and Gregory McMichael were also guilty of one count each of using, carrying, and brandishing—and in Travis’s case, discharging—a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
Arbery’s death became another example of racial injustice in America because it reveals the way Black people are treated, after strangers chased the man, trapped him on a quiet street, and killed him with a shotgun as he was running empty-handed through a Georgia neighborhood.
Travis McMichael and his father Gregory, who were armed and in one vehicle. Their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, who was in another vehicle and recorded the pursuit and shooting on his cell phone.
The video showed that after several minutes, Travis McMichael got out of his truck and confronted Arbery with a shotgun, and then shot Arbery three times.
Members of the Glynn County Police Department (GCPD) arrived on the scene soon after the shooting, but no arrests were made for more than two months.
Police said the Brunswick District Attorney’s Office first advised them to make no arrests, then Waycross District Attorney George Barnhill twice advised the GCPD to make no arrests, once before he was officially assigned to the case, and once while announcing his intention to recuse due to a conflict of interest.
The case was ultimately transferred to the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office, a grand jury indicted each of the three men on charges of malice murder, felony murder, and other crimes, and all three were convicted on November 24, 2021.
The verdict was a symbolic one, coming a few months after all three defendants were convicted of murder in a Georgia state court and sentenced to life in prison — for the McMichaels without the possibility of parole and for Bryant, only after he has served 30 years.
The hate crimes trial was viewed as an important statement that racism motivated the killing.
The local authorities’ handling of the case resulted in nationwide criticism and debates on racial profiling in the United States
The jury delivered its verdict one day before the second anniversary of Arbery’s death on Feb. 23, 2020.
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