Attorneys are asking a U.S. appeals court to throw out the hate crime convictions of three White men who used pickup trucks to chase Ahmaud Arbery through the streets of a Georgia subdivision before one of them killed the running Black man with a shotgun.

A panel of judges from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta was scheduled to hear oral arguments Wednesday in a case that followed a national outcry over Arbery’s death. The men’s lawyers argue that evidence of past racist comments they made didn’t prove a racist intent to harm.

  • stoly@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Notable: their argument is that it was unfair to have used their social media posts in trial because what was said inflamed the jury against them. They are literally saying that you can’t use their past words against them because they were so bad that a jury would automatically react against them.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Well, it’s too late to not be vocally racist hillbillies, so what other shot do they have?

      I wish them a speedy trial and a swift return to their homes (cells, that is).

      Does America add time as a penalty for stupid appeals, yet?

    • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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      8 months ago

      This is why you shouldn’t post anything to social media that anyone could ever use against you unless you do so very anonymously.