- Fewer than 1 in 5 suspects of federal hate crime-related cases are prosecuted, according to the Justice Department.
- The state murder trial did not delve into issues of race, which some argued 'whitewashed' the case that many had called a modern-day lynching.
- Arbery's family pushed strongly against plea deals for the men and pressured attorneys to prosecute the case.
The sweeping hate crime convictions of three white men nearly two years to the day since they chased and murdered a Black man running in their neighborhood finally acknowledges the racist motivations of what many have long called a modern-day lynching, experts say.
"The first trial was whitewashed. It took race out of the situation, and that was a real harm," said Justin Hansford, executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University. "It meant a lot to have this second verdict that expressed a particular acknowledgement of the fact that this was a hate crime and punishing it as such."
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