• Three-judge panel finds sufficient evidence of racial animus based on defendants’ social media and messages
• Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael, and William Bryan remain imprisoned for life on murder convictions
• Defense attorneys argued racist language failed to prove intent, but judges rejected technical appeals

ATLANTA, Ga. (TDR) — A federal appeals court Friday upheld hate crime convictions against three white men who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, during a February 2020 pursuit through a Georgia subdivision.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a split decision that sufficient evidence supported the jury’s finding that Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael, and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan acted with racist intent when they chased Arbery with pickup trucks before shooting him. The three-judge panel took more than a year to rule after defense attorneys urged them in March 2024 to overturn the convictions.

Evidence of longstanding racial prejudice

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U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch wrote in the opinion that prosecutors demonstrated each defendant “held longstanding prejudice,” providing sufficient evidence for “a reasonable juror to find that Arbery’s race was the determinative factor” in the deadly neighborhood chase. The panel included U.S. Circuit Judge Britt Grant, both Trump appointees, and U.S. District Judge Victoria Calvert, a Biden appointee.

Federal prosecutors presented more than two dozen social media posts and text messages during the February 2022 trial showing the defendants regularly used racial slurs and disparaged Black people. The evidence revealed what prosecutors described as “pent-up racial anger” that motivated the killing.

Copious evidence supports the jury’s underlying finding that Glynn County ‘provided or administered’ the streets of Satilla Shores.

Travis McMichael’s social media comments and text messages showed he harbored racial animus toward Black people, describing them as “sub-human savages” who “ruin everything.” FBI intelligence analyst Amy Vaughan testified that McMichael’s posts revealed he had associated Black people with criminality for years and expressed desires to see Black people harmed or killed.

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In a 2018 Facebook comment on a video showing a Black man playing a prank on a white person, Travis McMichael used expletives and racial slurs while writing he would kill the man. In March 2019 text messages, he complained about Black people at Cracker Barrel and wrote, “They ruin everything. That’s why I love what I do now. Not a n***er in sight.”

Racist messages from all three defendants

William Bryan sent racist text messages just four days before Arbery’s death after learning his daughter was dating a Black man. Bryan referred to the boyfriend using racial slurs including “ni***r” and “monkey.” When police interviewed Bryan about the shooting, he admitted never seeing or hearing anything about Arbery before the chase. Bryan told officers his “instinct” suggested the Black man must be a thief or shooter.

Greg McMichael’s encrypted iPhone prevented investigators from retrieving text messages, but witnesses testified about deeply racist comments he made. One witness described McMichael saying deceased civil rights activist Julian Bond “should have been put in the ground years ago. He was nothing but trouble. Those Blacks are nothing but trouble.”

FBI agents recovered a Facebook post McMichael shared in 2016 claiming “White Irish slaves were treated worse than any other race in the U.S.,” followed by vulgar language contrasting Irish immigrants with other racial groups demanding government assistance.

Defense arguments rejected

Defense attorneys for Bryan and Greg McMichael criticized prosecutors’ reliance on racist language, arguing the statements were repulsive but failed to prove racist intent to harm Arbery specifically. A.J. Balbo, Greg McMichael’s attorney, insisted his client pursued Arbery because he mistakenly suspected him of being a fleeing criminal.

The McMichaels had seen security camera footage showing Arbery entering a neighboring home under construction in prior months. However, the 11th Circuit judges noted no evidence existed that Arbery committed any crimes in the neighborhood. He was unarmed and had no stolen property when killed.

Amy Lee Copeland, Travis McMichael’s attorney, didn’t dispute the jury’s racism finding. Instead, she based her appeal on legal technicalities, arguing prosecutors failed to prove the streets of Satilla Shores subdivision were public roads as stated in the indictment. The 11th Circuit rejected this argument.

Timeline of events and prosecutions

Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and pursued Arbery in a pickup truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood near Brunswick on February 23, 2020. Bryan joined the chase and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range.

More than two months passed without arrests until Bryan’s graphic video leaked online. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police as outrage over Arbery’s death became part of a national outcry over racial injustice during summer 2020.

All three men were convicted of murder by a Georgia state court in late 2021. After a second trial in U.S. District Court in early 2022, a jury found them guilty of federal hate crimes and attempted kidnapping.

Sentencing and partial dissent

The trial judge sentenced both McMichaels to life in prison for hate crime convictions, plus additional time for brandishing guns while committing violent crimes. Travis McMichael received 10 extra years, while his father received seven additional years. Bryan received a lighter sentence of 35 years in prison, partly because he wasn’t armed and preserved the crucial cellphone video evidence.

Judge Calvert dissented from the majority’s kidnapping convictions. She argued the pickup trucks used by the McMichaels didn’t qualify as instrumentalities of interstate commerce for attempted kidnapping charges. Calvert wrote there was “no interstate travel, no use of the interstate highway system, no exchange of communications via phone or text message, and no use of the internet.”

Despite the successful appeal, the three men faced no immediate possibility of release. They’re serving concurrent life terms for murder following their state court convictions, ensuring they remain imprisoned regardless of the federal hate crime ruling.

National implications

The case highlighted federal hate crime prosecutions and the use of social media evidence to prove racial motivation. FBI Director Christopher Wray stated at sentencing that hate crimes “target what makes us who we are as Americans, striking at the very heart of our society.”

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division emphasized the murder represented “a brutal and abhorrent racially-motivated hate crime” that reminded Americans “hate-fueled violence targeting Black people remains a modern-day threat.”

Defense attorneys declined comment or didn’t immediately respond to media inquiries following Friday’s ruling. Marcus Arbery, Ahmaud’s father, told reporters during the original trial that seeing the racist evidence was difficult but important for the world to witness.

Should social media posts and private text messages containing racist language be sufficient evidence to prove hate crime motivation, or should prosecutors be required to demonstrate more direct connections between prejudice and criminal actions?

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