During their 2022 trial for federal hate crimes and attempted kidnapping, federal prosecutors presented evidence to establish the presence of racial animus against Black people in defendants Travis McMichael, William “Roddie” Bryan, and Gregory McMichael. Numerous examples of racial slurs and vicious, bigoted comments made by the white men, who had already been convicted in Georgia state court in 2021 and received life sentences for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, led a federal jury to find them guilty of hate crimes and convict them on all counts after only four hours of deliberation.
In federal appeals court, the defense presented a sufficiency of the evidence argument to the three-judge panel on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Attorneys for Bryan and the McMichaels argued that it hadn’t been proven that the three acted with racist intent at the time of the killing. While copious evidence was presented about the three white men’s racial animus in social media posts and text messages, they argued this wasn’t enough to prove they acted with racist intent when they hunted down Arbery despite any evidence Arbery had committed any crimes or posed any risk. They also sought to have the attempted kidnapping charges thrown out by claiming the streets in the Atlanta suburb where the killing of Ahmaud Arbery took place weren’t public roads.
The approach failed to persuade the appellate court, which upheld all of the hate crime sentences on November 14, 2025. Aside from one judge dissenting on the kidnapping verdict, the panel rejected the notion that their history of racism displayed by the defendants was not part of their decision to chase and subsequently kill a black man under the veneer of vigilante justice.
Didn’t they Notice His Hands Were Empty?
Ahmaud Arbery’s death shocked the nation, evoking the violence and racism that dominated the Jim Crow Era. On February 23, 2020, Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, went for a run through Satilla Shores, a non-gated community in Brunswick, a suburb of Atlanta. As he’d done a few times over the previous four months, Arbery paused to examine a home construction site. Security cameras showed that he never vandalized or stole anything from the location.
As he continued his run, Arbery was spotted by Greg McMichael and his son, Travis, as he passed their house. Recognizing Arbery from the construction site’s security footage and suspecting (without proof) that he may have been involved in recent robberies that had occurred in the neighborhood, the two jumped into pickup trucks and began chasing him. Bryan joined the hunt after watching Arbery trying to flee the McMichaels.
After a five-minute-long chase and being clipped by one of the pickups, Arbery was boxed in by his pursuers. When Travis McMichael brandished a shotgun at him, Arbery tried to wrestle it away. He was shot twice, but responding officers allegedly didn’t check on him immediately and he died from his wounds. Bryan filmed part of the chase and caught the moment of Arbery’s murder on his cellphone.
Not deleting the footage turned out to be a misstep. Local police initially didn’t press charges against the three, with some speculating that this was due to Greg McMichael having previously been a civil servant. Once Bryan’s footage was leaked online, the prevailing outrage led to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation taking over the case. The three men claimed their actions were based on the belief that Arbery had stolen items, but presented no evidence of the alleged thefts.
On November 24, 2021, in the Glynn County Superior Court, the three were convicted of felony murder, false imprisonment, aggravated assault, and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment, with Travis McMichael also guilty of malice murder. All were given life sentences in January 2022, with only Bryan eligible for parole after 30 years.
In February 2022, they were convicted on federal charges as well. All were found guilty of hate crimes for interference of rights and attempted kidnapping. The McMichaels were also convicted of using a firearm during a violent crime.
The Internet Sees All and Never, Ever Forgets
During the hate crimes trial, federal prosecutors presented dozens of examples of hateful and discriminatory racial hate speech made by the defendants in text messages and on social media posts. These included Travis McMichael texting that he loved his job because he had “zero n*****s” working with him, Greg McMichael saying that “all those Blacks are nothing but trouble; I wish they would all die,” and Bryan stating that a Black man who was dating his daughter would “fit right in with the monkeys.”
Defense attorneys did not address the mountain of racial slurs and behavior during the federal trial, but made them the focus of the appeal. Arguing that despite the racially tinged statements made by the defendants in the past, the prosecution had failed to prove that the three men were acting with racial animus in their pursuit and eventual killing of Arbery.
The Eleventh Circuit panel didn’t buy that approach, noting that the previously established racism provided the motives and prejudices that fueled their commission of Arbery’s murder at their hands. By taking the law into their hands despite having no proof that Arbery was guilty of any crimes, the three men had established that the color of his skin was enough for them to try to justify what was essentially a lynching.
The sole dissent in the panel’s ruling came from U.S. District Judge Victoria Calvert, who would have allowed the tossing of the kidnapping charge. She agreed with the Tenth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Chiavarria (2025), which ruled that motor vehicles are not per se instrumentalities of interstate commerce. For Bryan and the McMichaels, having Judge Calvert’s agreement on that sole matter doesn’t even amount to a pyrrhic victory.
Related Resources
- Racial Discrimination (Findlaw’s Discrimination: Know Your Civil Rights and Legal Protections)
- Hate Crimes Law (FindLaw’s Civil Rights Law)
- What To Do if You Witness a Crime (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
