This year's anniversary of Arbery's death comes one day after his three convicted killers, who are white, were found guilty of targeting Arbery because of his race in a federal hate crimes trial.
A jury in Brunswick, Ga., found defendants Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan guilty of hate crimes in the 2020 shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery.
Offensive memes, racist songs and slurs against Black people from the cellphones and social media accounts of the three men on trial portray a history of bigotry.
The defense attorneys insisted the three men's pursuit of the 25-year-old was prompted by "honest, though erroneous, suspicion that he committed crimes" and not because of his race.
Travis McMichael on Friday reversed his plan to plead guilty in the federal case days after a judge rejected terms of a plea deal that was met with passionate objections by Ahmaud Arbery's parents.
McMichael and his son Travis had agreed to plead guilty in return for serving time in a federal prison instead of a state one in a deal rejected by a judge after Arbery's parents objected to it.
Travis McMichael, who pulled the trigger, and his father, Greg, have no chance for parole. A federal hate crimes trial remains in a case widely seen as racially motivated.
Georgia prosecutors have focused on testimony from law enforcement and neighbors in the trial against Greg and Travis McMichael and Roddie Bryan, accused of chasing and murdering Ahmaud Arbery.
Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and William "Roddie" Bryan face murder charges, accused of cornering and killing Arbery in a neighborhood in Glynn County, Ga.
Jury selection is in its third week in Georgia as attorneys question jurors in the murder trial of three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black jogger.
Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and their friend William "Roddie" Bryan have pleaded not guilty in the 2020 killing of Arbery as he jogged in a residential neighborhood in Georgia.
Three white men are accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man shot and killed as he was jogging down a residential street after being chased by pickup trucks. Jury selection begins Monday.
Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was shot and killed as he jogged through a neighborhood near Brunswick, Ga. in 2020. Three white men in pick-up trucks pursued him and then confronted him.
"I'm relieved they'll stay behind bars," Arbery's mother said. She had asked a judge to keep the pair in jail, saying "Ahmaud wasn't allowed to go home. Ahmaud wasn't even allowed the chance to live."
