Thread by @KlasfeldReports

Closing arguments will begin shortly in the federal case against Ahmaud Arbery's convicted murderers. Unlike in the state case, prosecutors ask a jury to find that they committed their crimes "because of Arbery's race and color."

ICYMI, opening statements lawandcrime.com/live-trials/li…

The first line by Christopher Perras, from the DOJ Civil Rights Division:

"There's a big difference between being vigilant and being a vigilante."

Perras says Arbery's killers weren't passionate about trespassing: "Travis McMichael even ripped down a 'No Trespassing' sign."

"This wasn't about trespassing. It wasn't about neighborhood crime. It was about race. Racial assumptions. Racial resentment and racial anger."

Perras adds the assumptions alone aren't why the jury is here: "Many people make racial assumptions. Very few act on them."

Perras: "The defendants were resentful of Black people."

He talks about Greg McMichael's "long, angry rant" about Black people after the death of Julian Bond and Bryan's anger about his daughter dating a Black man.

Perras on why Arbery stopped at Larry English's home:

"Maybe Ahmaud was stopping to clear his mind, to be alone, to get away from it all."

Whatever was on his mind, we'll never know "because these men killed him," he adds.

After Perras invokes the name of Trayvon Martin, a defense counsel objects.

Overruled.

The prosecutor is explaining why a young Black Arbery ran away from the white "angry strangers" pursuing him with guns.

Perras notes the irony of Arbery's killer saying: "I'm tired of being pursued and chased and chased."

If he considered how Arbery would have felt about that, maybe Arbery would be alive today, Perras added.

Perras: "Ahmaud was a runner. He was in peak physical condition. These defendants were not."

Perras said Roddie Bryan never questioned that a Black man was in the wrong when he said of Arbery "y'all got him."

"That's how hard-wired his racial assumptions were."

In a different instance, Bryan thought a Black man was a dirt-bike thief; he used a racial slur then.

Perras says he's not going to rattle off all of the evidence of their racial animus because "we don't have enough time."

Perras quotes Greg McMichael on the death of civil rights luminary Julian Bond:

"I wish that guy had been put in the ground years ago. All those Blacks are nothing but trouble. I wish they would all die."

Perras:

The defendants did not just make "racial assumptions."

"They made racial decisions."

"They hunted Ahmaud down like an animal."

Perras plays a video of Travis McMichael ripping down a "No Trespassing" sign when he wants to go hunting on private property.

Perras plays a jailhouse recording of Greg McMichael chuckling as he says:

"You've all heard the saying, 'No good deed goes unpunished.'"

Perras:

"You know in your head and you know in your heart that this crime was about race."

In attempted kidnapping count, prosecutors need to prove in that the McMichaels and Bryan sought a "benefit."

Perras says that for them, it was an opportunity to live out a "macho vigilante fantasy," and act like the heroes of the neighborhood.

Perras:

"The evidence showed that the McMichaels weren't actually tough guys, but they wanted to be thought of themselves as tough guys."

He later describes them as "wannabe tough guys."

The defense's depiction of Satilla Shores as a "neighborhood under attack" doesn't live up to reality, the prosecutor notes.

Perras: "Satilla Shores is a quiet safe neighborhood to live."

Perras:

"The only person under attack in Satilla Shores was Ahmaud Arbery."

Perras skewers the defense for describing Arbery's death as "unfortunate," "tragedy," and "fate."

"A tornado destroying a house in a tragedy," he says.

"The murder of Ahmaud Arbery was not a tragedy. It did not result from a twist of fate."

Prosecution's summation ends.

"‘It Was About Race’: Prosecutors Urge Jury to Convict Ahmaud Arbery’s Murderers of Federal Hate Crimes in Closing Arguments"

The story so far, @LawCrimeNews lawandcrime.com/high-profile/i…

Travis McMichael's lawyer Amy Lee Copeland is up.

She notes that this isn't a murder case. (He's already been convicted of that.) This case is about the crimes charged in the indictment.

How the indictment begins.

Copeland says that the evidence of his racial animus derive from seven texts and five social media private messages, saying that his language was "wrong" and "terrible," but "private."

She tells a jury that there's no evidence that her client used a racial slur on the day he killed Ahmaud Arbery or belonged to a white supremacist group.

Copeland claims her client shot Arbery because Arbery tried to take McMichael's gun away.

(The prosecutor previously described this argument as blaming the victim and said Arbery was trying to defend himself after being cornered.

The only alternative, ironically, was running onto a private property, the prosecutor noted.)

Greg McMichael's lawyer Attilio J. Balbo is now up.

Balbo tells jurors that during deliberations:

"You're going to need to talk about race, and you're going to need to talk about racism."

"Race is not the but-for causation" for Greg McMichael, Balbo said.

Balbo acknowledges the "evidence doesn't support" that Arbery was burglarizing anything, but he says the defense doesn't need to show that.

Balbo describes the evidence of racist slurs as "horrible, repugnant, vile."

Most of that evidence "applies to two of the defendants, and neither of them is named Greg McMichael," he says.

(Greg McMichael allegedly launched into a rant after Julian Bond's death.)

Balbo disputes the account of the witness who said Greg McMichael made that rant.

Balbo says his client, unlike the other two defendants, was not quoted using the N-word.

"This was not because of race," he claims.

Last defense attorney up:

James Pete Theodocion for Bryan.

Theodocion says that federal authorities know if someone has a "pinky toe" in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, claiming evidence of Bryan's racial animus is unrepresentative.

"That's not his world. He's not obsessed with race."

(Bryan disapproved of his daughter dating a Black man.)

Theodocion says of Arbery:

"He happened to be on the road. He happened to be African-American."

Theodocion:

"All men are created equal. All men deserve due process under the law."

He concedes Arbery was denied that.

"You don't have to like these men."

Referring to his client: "If you want, you can hate him, that doesn't matter."

"We have to elevate higher."

Theodocion tell the jury that his client deserves due process "regardless of whether Ahmaud Arbery received justice—we know he didn't; we know he did not."

His summation wraps.

Lunch recess.

The government's rebuttal has concluded and the judge is instructing the jurors on the law, before they begin deliberations.