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Ahmaud Arbery was murdered in cold blood by three white men who hate Black folks. Full stop. There is no equivocation. There are no alternative facts. The evidence has been presented and we all heard, read, and saw what Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryant think of melanated people. They want them dead.
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A jury of their peers agreed with that assessment and found all three of them guilty of murder and federal hate crimes. Now, according to a new report by AP News, the men are begging an appeals judge to overturn the hate crime part of their convictions.
Caucasity audacity.
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The mens’ attorneys are playing semantic games with the court in hopes that their KKK-esque clients will be freed from the consequences of their abhorrent actions.
“At the end of the day, this issue isn’t about the racism of these defendants,” A.J. Balbo, representing Greg McMichael, told a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, AP reports. “It’s about whether or not the government met its burden.”
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Two of the three appellate judges hearing the case, Judge Britt Grant and Judge Elizabeth “Lisa” Branch, were nominated by Donald Trump while Joe Biden nominated District Court Judge Victoria Calvert. That might seem like a score for the white killers’ defense, but Judge Grant rebuffed attorney A.J. Balbo’s attempt to discredit the argument that race was a factor in Arbery’s murder
“If this person had been a 60-year-old Black man, Greg McMichael would not have engaged him,” Balbo said per AP. “The race was a non-contributing role in this matter.”
To which Britt skeptically replied that the evidence against the murderous soup cookies “seems pretty overwhelming to me.”
We will bring you more information about this appeal as the hearings continue.
