In Arbery Hate Crimes Trial, Racism Will Take Center Stage
The New York Times
Jurors in the unusual case will be asked to decide if the men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery were motivated by racial animus. The evidence they may consider includes explicitly racist language.
ATLANTA — The killing of George Floyd catalyzed a period of national soul-searching about race and racism that has touched nearly every aspect of American life. But in a number of high-profile trials since then — including in the murder of Mr. Floyd and the killing of Ahmaud Arbery — prosecutors have carefully avoided putting racism itself on center stage.
That changes as soon as this week, as federal prosecutors try to prove that the white men who killed Mr. Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, committed a federal hate crime when they chased and killed him “because of Arbery’s race and color,” as their indictment puts it.
In the upcoming trial, prosecutors are almost certain to feature ugly evidence, culled from seized cellphones and other sources, seeking to prove that the three Georgia residents — Travis McMichael, 36, his father, Gregory McMichael, 66, and their neighbor William Bryan, 52 — harbored racist views before the afternoon in February 2020 when they gave chase to Mr. Arbery.
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