William Roddie Bryan

Appealing their convictions, Ahmaud Arbery's murderers are arguing that just because they're racist doesn't mean the racism made them kill.

While the hate crime convictions for Gregory and Travis McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan may help Ahmaud Arbery's loved ones inch closer to closure, civil rights leaders are cautioning against confusing the verdicts for true justice.

Two years have passed since the tragic day Ahmaud Arbery lost his life to racist vigilantism in a case that involved a coverup by the highest levels of law enforcement in Brunswick, Georgia.

The U.S. Department of Justice is defending its decision to offer a plea deal to the convicted murderers of Ahmaud Arbery, but an attorney representing the deceased jogger's family is pushing back on the feds' narrative.

A judge handed down life in prison sentences to each of Ahmuad Arbery's three convicted murderers - Greg and Travis McMichaels and William "Roddie" Bryan - for the brutal and brazen killing of the unarmed Black jogger in a case that centered on race and captivated the world's attention.

After the recent indictments of two Georgia district attorneys, including one who worked on Ahmaud Arbery's case while concealing a conflict of interest, Waycross County District Attorney George Barnhill -- who justified Arbery's shooting -- could be next.

Nearly two years after Ahmaud Arbery's shocking killing in Brunswick, Georgia, the murder trial has finally begun in an effort to the three white men accountable for the racist and vigilante shooting that bore all the hallmarks of a modern-day lynching.

Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan - the three white men involved in Ahmaud Arbery's killing - have been found guilty of murder in the vigilante shooting of the 25-year-old Black jogger they racially profiled in Brunswick, Georgia.

Lawyers for William "Roddie" Bryan, one of the three white men charged with murdering Ahmaud Arbery, reportedly offered a plea deal to the prosecution, but it was immediately rejected, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt said.

Minshew said at one point Bryan questioned whether he should've even been chasing Arbery. But there does not seem to be a moment when he thought he was executing a citizen's arrest, as has been alleged by the defendants multiple times.

The murder trials for Kyle Rittenhouse and the men who killed Ahmaud Arbery might not be happening if the white males involved didn't decide to take the law into their own hands in illegal attempts to dole out vigilante justice.

The citizen's arrest law that Ahmaud Arbery's accused killers used in an attempt to justify their deadly violence could play an outsized role in their murder trial.