Ahmaud Arbery's murderers McMichaels appeal federal hate crime conviction

Source: Megan Varner / Getty

Ahmaud Arbery and his family seem to be the rare case where a Black person was killed and got full justice under the law. The white men who killed Arbery, Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan, have all been convicted of murder and federal hate crimes as there was evidence that all of them have a history of making racist comments including the n-word.

The McMichaels Appeal Federal Hate Crimes Conviction For Murder Of Ahmaud Arbery

According to Yahoo! News, the McMichaels and Bryan are now appealing their convictions and their legal team is using a couple of technicalities to try to get them free, one of which is pretty weak. The first of which relies on the idea that it was not “proven” that these men are racists.

“The Government also failed to supply the jury with any evidence that Defendant Gregory McMichael associated African Americans with criminality,” his defense attorney said. “In fact, during a career in law enforcement spanning over two decades, the Government provided absolutely no evidence that Defendant Gregory McMichael displayed racist attitudes in the presence of coworkers, subordinates, and supervisors.”

The second technicality is the one that will really grind your gears. The federal statute for hate crimes states that no person shall be injured in a “public space” because of their race.

Let the devilish defense attorneys tell it, the street where Ahmaud was murdered was not public property. In Georgia, the law states that a private road is defined as roads on private land or a road owned by a private citizen, including any bridge, “which is only open for the benefit of one or more individuals and not for the general public.”

Defense attorneys argued that even though the county listed the roads as public streets on work orders, county officials formally rejected ownership of them sixty years ago.

60 years ago. They want these devils to be shown leniency because of something the county said 6 decades ago.

We hope none of these soup cookies ever see the light of day as free men ever again.