The three white men found guilty of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery have a history of racist or defamatory comments in new, stunning text messages.

During the opening of the case, the defense attorneys admitted that their clients had once expressed offensive and indisputable opinions about black people. But they insist the trio's pursuit of Arbery as he raced through their neighborhood was motivated by an honest, if mistaken, suspicion that he committed a crime, not his race.

McMichael and his father, Greg McMichael, armed themselves and chased Arbery in a van after driving past their Georgia beach home on February 23, 2020. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael blasting Arbery with a shotgun. Arrests came only after the video leaked online two months later.

All three were convicted of murder and a judge sentenced them to life in prison last month.

Now the McMichaels and Bryan are on trial again, this time in U.S. District Court, where federal prosecutors have charged them with hate crimes that allege they violated Arbery’s civil rights and targeted him because he was Black.

Security cameras inside a nearby home under construction had recorded video of Arbery wandering inside, but never taking anything, several times in the months before his death. However, McMichaels assumed Arbery must be the criminal and tracked him down, prosecutor Bobbi Bernstein told the jury.

Bernstein said prosecutors will present evidence that McMichael and Bryan's comments show thinking that leads them to suspect an innocent black person of wrongdoing.

McMichaels and Bryan’s defendants have admitted that their client made racially offensive remarks. But they urged jurors to decide the hate crime case based on facts rather than raw emotions such words might stir up.