The three men who chased Ahmaud Arbery through a Brunswick, Georgia, suburb in 2020, resulting in a deadly confrontation, were convicted of murder by a state jury in November. All three were sentenced to life in prison. Now the same three white men are on trial in federal court for the same conduct, facing the possibility of additional life sentences if prosecutors can persuade the jury that they targeted Arbery, who was black, "because of his race."
According to the Supreme Court, this second prosecution does not amount to double jeopardy, because the state and federal crimes, defined by two different "sovereigns," are not "the same offense." But since Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan are already serving life sentences, you might wonder why the federal government is bothering to prosecute them again.
