The three men accused of murder in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to federal hate crime charges.
The Department of Justice in late April charged father and son defendants Gregory McMichael, 65, and Travis McMichael, 35, along with their neighbor and accused accomplice William “Roddie” Bryan, 51, of targeting and threatening Arbery because of his race.
The men, who are white, allegedly chased and fatally shot Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, after they spotted him running in their Georgia neighborhood. Federal prosecutors said the McMichaels got into a truck and went after Arbery. Bryan then joined the chase and videotaped the incident.
Arbery was shot three times. Once in the center of his chest, once in the upper-left chest, and once through his right wrist.
FEDERAL LAWSUIT OVER AHMAUD ARBERY DEATH CLAIMS POLICE AND PROSECUTORS INVOLVED IN COVER-UP
After federal charges were filed against the men, Lee Merritt, an attorney for Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said that the federal case would “serve as a fail-safe to the state prosecution.”
At a June 2020 probable cause hearing in Georgia, Georgia Bureau of Investigation lead agent Richard Dial testified that Travis McMichael made a racist slur against Arbery as he laid on the ground dying.
Travis McMichael’s attorney claims his client never made the remark.
The Arbery case is the most significant civil rights prosecution since President Joe Biden took office and comes at a time when federal officials have quickly moved to open investigations involving troubled police departments throughout the country.
Georgia is one of four states that does not have a hate crime law.
Tuesday’s plea hearing also comes on the heels of the Georgia Legislature repealing a vague law that was being used to defend the men accused of killing Arbery.
The law had allowed any citizen to arrest another if a crime was committed “within his immediate knowledge.” The wording has since been replaced with specific language to provide for detainment in very specific circumstances.
The men accused of killing Arbery claimed they thought Arbery had committed a burglary when they chased him, though no such evidence of that crime has ever been brought to light.
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Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the changes into law Monday, alongside a bipartisan group of state lawmakers as well as Cooper-Jones and Arbery’s sister, Jasmine Arbery.
