SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – The men found guilty of murder in Ahmaud Arbery‘s fatal shooting are appealing their federal hate crimes convictions.

That’s according to court documents filed last Friday.

Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was gunned down as he was jogging through the Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick on Feb. 23, 2020.

According to WTLV, each of the men — Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan — filed appeals arguing that race didn’t play a role in their decision to chase Arbery.

Bryan’s appeal argues that “every crime committed against an African American by a man who has used racist language in the past is not a hate crime.”

In August 2022, a federal judge sentenced Travis McMichael, the man who shot Arbery, to life plus 10 years in prison. His father, Greg McMichael, who was carrying a firearm, received a life sentence plus seven years. Bryan, who joined in the McMichael’s chase after Arbery, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

When Arbery was killed, there was no state hate crime statute, meaning it could only be prosecuted in federal court. It wasn’t until after Arbery’s death that Georgia passed hate crime legislation.