Leid Stories - 02.16.22

Three white men,  convicted in a state court of the brutal murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man they saw jogging through their suburban Brunswick, Ga. neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020, are in their second day of trial in federal court.

Federal statutes allow for separate/additional prosecutions for crimes allegedly committed in violation of human-rights laws. Racial hatred motivated Arbury's attackers --  Gregory McMichael, 65, son Travis McMichael, 35, and neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan, 52 -- the prosecutor has charged.

In her opening statement prosecutor Bobbi Bernstein said that Ahmaud Arbery would not have been murdered had he been white.

 

QUESTIONS: 

︎Is prosecution under federal statutes double jeopardy?

︎Could prosecutors prove beyond the shadow of a doubt what was in Arbery's killers' minds when they murdered him?