Thread by @KlasfeldReports

First line of a prosecutor's opening statement in the federal trial against Ahmaud Arbery's killers:

"I want to talk to you all about what turned out to be the last day of Ahmaud Arbery's life."

Background, @Lawcrimenews: lawandcrime.com/live-trials/li…

AUSA on why the McMichaels and Bryan:

The short answer, you'll learn, is that all three defendants made decisions about Ahmaud because of the color of his skin.

AUSA notes that, though this is commonly described as a federal "hate crime" trial, the charge "does not require proof of hate."

"It requires that the defendant acted because of race."

AUSA quotes Travis McMichael using the N-word.

"Zero n***rs work with me. They ruin everything."

McMichael allegedly said he liked his contracting job because there's "not a n***r in sight."

He called Black people "criminals," "monkeys" and "sub-human savages," per AUSA.

Greg McMichael spoke derisively of civil rights leader Julian Bond, shocking an associate, the AUSA says.

AUSA says that gunman Travis McMichael referred to an image on social media of a man with a firecracker in his nose by saying:

"It would have been cooler if it blew the f***ing n****r’s head off."

AUSA:

Travis McMichael was "eager to blame the dead Black man for getting shot."

Greg McMichael said that the man on the ground was a "thief."

"Oh yeah, and that he probably stole" a gun from Travis's truck.

"You'll learn that none of that is true."

Bryan's lawyer James Pete Theodocion tells a jury he won't defend racism, quoted from the mouths of his client's co-defendants.

"I've heard the N-word more today than I've heard in three or more years."

"Racist tropes, slurs, opinions are really the lowest of human emotions."

Theodocion:

"With Roddie Bryan, you won't see a man who sees the entire world through the prism of race."

(Note: Bryan was the only man convicted of Arbery's murder who has the possibility of parole after 30 years, after what a judge determined to be his lesser role.)