Ahmaud Arbery Federal Hate Crimes Verdict in, Killers Guilty on All Counts

The men who killed Ahmaud Arbery were convicted of a hate crime.

The jurors in the hate crime trial reached their decision Tuesday after a weeklong trial in which prosecutors argued that the murder was motivated by hatred of Arbery because of his race. Gregory McMichael and William Bryan were all found guilty.

All three men were charged with interference of Arbery's civil rights. The McMichaels were charged with carrying and brandishing a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.

The man who shot and killed Arbery on the road was also hit with a count of using a firearm in relation to a violent crime. The case fell within the purview of federal hate crime laws because the feds alleged the acts were racially motivated.

Prosecutors pointed to racist messages they claimed had been posted or exchanged by the defendants, specifically zeroing in on the case of McMichael, who they said once said Black people needed to be made examples of in white vs. Black confrontations.

The men were accused of using racially charged language at one point or another. According to the feds, Bryan told cops he heard the McMichaels use a racist epithet to describe Ahmaud after he fell to the ground.

The men insisted they were not racist and that the chase was not motivated by race.

The jury did not believe them.

The McMichaels and Bryan were sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty in state court. The McMichaels have no chance of ever getting out because of their life sentence. Bryan's federal conviction makes his release unlikely because he didn't have that condition.