BRUNSWICK, GA. — The federal hate crimes trial of the three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery enters its fourth day Thursday after testimony that two of the defendants frequently used racial slurs.
Prosecutors were scheduled to continue calling witnesses in U.S. District Court in the port city of Brunswick. Arbery, 25, was fatally shot just outside the city limits nearly two years ago. The white men who pursued him pleaded not guilty to violating his civil rights and targeting him because he was Black.
FBI analyst Amy Vaughan testified Wednesday thxjmtzywat Travis McMichael repeatedly used the N-word and other racist slurs in text messages and social media in the months and years before the killing. They included posts describing violence against Black people.
His father, Greg McMichael, posted a Facebook meme stating "Irish slaves" in America were mistreated more than any group in the nation’s history, but investigators were unable to download evidence from his encrypted cellphone.
Fellow defendant William "Roddie" Bryan also used slurs in a number of electronic messages, including several sent on Martin Luther King Jr. Day that mocked the holiday devoted to the civil rights leader.
The McMichaels armed themselves and chased Arbery in a pickup truck after spotting him running past their home Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit and recorded video of Travis McMichael blasting Arbery with a shotgun.
No arrests were made until the graphic video leaked online two months later and Arbery’s killing became part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice.
All three men were convicted of murder last fall in a Georgia state court and sentenced to life in prison.
Defense attorneys denounced their racist messages as offensive and indefensible, but said their deadly pursuit was motivated by an earnest, though erroneous, suspicion that Arbery had committed crimes.
