Ahmaud Arbery's killers say race was not a factor in effort to overturn convictions

This combination of photos shows, from left, Travis McMichael, William "Roddie" Bryan, and Gregory McMichael during their trial at the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga. On Friday, March 3, 2023, the three white men serving prison sentences in the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery asked an appeals court to throw out their federal hate crime convictions, with two of them arguing their histories of making racist comments do not prove they targeted Arbery because he was Black. (AP Photo/Pool, File)

A panel of judges from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is weighing oral arguments from attorneys for three white men convicted of federal hate crimes and kidnapping in the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery in 2020.

The 25-year-old Black man was chased and gunned down while jogging in a neighborhood in south Georgia by father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan.

The trio is currently serving life sentences in Georgia state prisons for murder.