Jury selection started on Monday in the federal hate crimes trial against the three white men already convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery. William Bryan and Travis and Gregory McMichael were convicted this past November in the state’s criminal trial held in Glynn County.
The McMichaels were sentenced in January to life without parole. Bryan was sentenced to life with an eligibility for parole after he serves 30 years.
The three men were each charged with one count of interference with rights and one count of attempted kidnapping. Travis and Gregory McMichael also were charged with one count each of using, carrying and brandishing — and in Travis’ case, discharging — a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. Those Grand Jury indictments were handed down last April.
U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood turned down a previous plea agreement presented by prosecutors for the father- and-son duo who chased down and killed Arbery as he ran through their neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020. Under the plea, the two men would have pled guilty to one of the federal charges and be allowed to serve their first 30 years in federal prison instead of state prison.
Visibly upset for what she called a back-stabbing deal, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told the judge, “Granting these men their preferred conditions of confinement would defeat me. It gives them one last chance to spit in my face after murdering my son.”
After rejecting the deal, both men retracted their guilty pleas and pled not guilty. Prosecutors must now make the case that the three men killed Arbery based on his race. During the state’s criminal trial, which began on Oct. 18, 2021, and ended with their guilty verdicts a month later, state prosecutor Linda Dunikoski avoided presenting the jury with evidence that included racial slurs and comments made by the three men, fearing it may turn off the jury of 11 white people and one African- American.
During this trial bringing up evidence of the three men’s racial animus is practically unavoidable. In a preliminary hearing held June 4, 2021 Georgia Bureau of Investigation Assistant Special Agent in Charge Richard Dial, testified that Bryan heard Travis McMichael call Arbery a racial slur moments after shooting him.
He added that similar racial slurs were found in several of Travis Mc-Michael’s social media posts and cellphone text messages. The jury is expected to hear of several instances where the three men spoke negatively in regards to African Americans, categorizing them as criminals or wishing them harm or danger.
Evidence not presented in the state’s case indicated the truck Travis McMichael used to hunt down Arbery had a Confederate flag tag on the front, which was removed right after the murder.
Jury selection was expected to take two weeks. The trial may take from seven to 12 days.