and wept. outside the courthouse hugs and cheers over the verdict they had been hoping for but feared might never come. i want to bring in nbc s cal perry in georgia. ck hoff ler is a veteran lawyer and danielle higgins is a defense attorney. happy thanksgiving to you all. cal, we know the men have to go back on trial on federal hate crimes charges in just ten weeks. after such an emotional period for this community, are they ready to go through it again? reporter: look. i think it was very difficult to relive the moments that took place february 23, 2020, for the community because this case was so badly mishandled by prosecutors here and the facts of the case were never in dispute. what happened that day never in dispute. three white men with two firearms shot and killed an unarmed black male. the community wondered how police thought in any way that
murder to not to go home and wash his hands and get rid of the evidence. she told the police officers to stand down and devastating. she obstructed the scene. ck? ck, i think something is maybe playing on your computer. did we get that did that stop? okay. so we don t have it. danielle, that same question and what you think the message is here in the prosecution of this prosecutor. a lot of people are saying accountability was delivered yesterday to the ahmaud arbery family. not necessarily justice. it is because there are loose ends here that have to be tied up. there s so many missteps here, including jackie johnson, the prosecutor on the case and must be brought to justice.
how you prosecute hate crimes when there are underlying crimes and important for this justice department to get it right on this case. danielle, there s been speculation up until the verdict that it could be split, maybe william bryan would be acquitted. he was not. do you think there s a chance the judge uses something to distinguish between the actions of the mcmichaels and bryan and do the defense attorneys have an opportunity for any significant input at this point? the defense counsel for bryan in the closing arguments tried to separate the client from the mcmichaels and i think he did an effective job in that. he may say to the judge, my client should not be held to the same standard as these two gentlemen even though he is convicted of felony murder and may ask for probation at the 30-year mark.
referred it to someone that worked in her office and worked with mr. mcmichaels the father so that person had to stand down and ultimately sent to cobb county. she also with the attorney general failed to disclose the conflict of interest. there s so many things. that s just a tip of the iceberg. the conduct is reprehencible. she needs to be accountable for her actions in the obstruction because a three-month delay when your child is shot and killed, murdered the way ahmaud arbery was, is devastated. but for the efforts of the family we may have not gotten to this point in this case. as so many families have to do, they kept this story alive. danielle, ck, cal, as always, you have been great in this trial. thank you. up next, migration tragedy.