United States Racist motives of men convicted of murder of black jogger to be dealt with in federal trial in February

On Friday In the United States, life imprisonment for a black jogger Ahmaud Arberyn the men involved in the murder are awaiting a federal trial in February.

Read more: In the United States, three white men sentenced to life imprisonment for murder of a black jogger

They are still charged with hate crimes and attempted kidnapping. The forthcoming trial is expected to highlight more clearly the racist motives briefly mentioned in the Arbery murder trial.

Gregory McMichael, this son Trevor McMichael and their neighbors William Bryan found guilty To the assassination of Arbery in November. Arbery was assassinated in February 2020.

The case was reported, among other things The New York Times, The Washington Post and BBC.

The mother of the victim Wanda Cooper-Jonesin lawyer Lee Merritt reported on Friday by The Washington Post that federal prosecutors had asked the family’s position on settling the case without trial.

However, Cooper-Jones had rejected the idea. According to Merritt, the family did not want to negotiate.

Lawyers noted that the federal trial is a welcome opportunity to address the role of racism in the actions of those convicted of Arbery’s murder.

Wanda Cooper-Jones, mother of Ahmaud Arbery. Picture: Stephen B. Morton / Reuters

Georgian in court murder proceedings, prosecutors raised racism less than expected, according to The New York Times. Prior to the trial, it had been implicated as a significant part of the lawsuit.

However, allegations of racism were hardly presented to the jury, but were invoked in the name of general fairness and common sense. The New York Times notes that this was possibly a strategic decision or was due to evidence challenges. There was only one black person on the trial jury.

Read more: Trial of black jogger killed in US – only one of 12 jurors is a black man

Racism was mentioned in passing, for example, in the prosecutor’s closing remarks, in which he stated that Arbery had been attacked “because he was a black man running down the street.”

In the future in the federal trial, evidence not seen in Georgia can be brought up, according to The New York Times. This includes, for example, Travis McMichael controversy, the flag of the South seen as a symbol of racism decorated car.

Prosecutors had also considered using Facebook updates and text messages containing racist phrases as evidence, for example.

At the pre-trial hearing, prosecutors read a text message from Travis McMichael using a racist phrase about a black man to describe the idea of ​​a “golden-toothed junkie” shooting.

McMichael’s neighbor Bryan is said to have sent racist text messages Martin Luther King Jron a holiday dedicated to. In addition, the witness statement suggests that Bryan did not approve of the adoption of his adopted daughter with the black man.

The New York Times reports that, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 90 percent of those charged with hate crimes in federal lower court between 2005 and 2019 were convicted.

A lawyer interviewed by the magazine Page Paten however, the upcoming trial could be challenging for prosecutors. Racist statements alone are not enough to condemn.

“Testing someone racist doesn’t mean hate crime. It has to be shown that the crime was related to those feelings, ”Pate tells The New York Times.