Judging Freedom - All 3 Defendants Convicted of Hate Crimes in Ahmaud Arbery Killing

Episode Date: February 22, 2022

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Resolve to earn your degree in the new year in the Bay with WGU. With courses available online 24-7 and monthly start dates, WGU offers maximum flexibility so you can focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu. Hello there, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here with Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, February 22, 2022. It's about 11.35 in the morning here on the East Coast, and we just learned that a jury in federal court in Atlanta has just convicted the three men who had already been convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery. This time they were convicted of hate crimes by violating the late Mr. Arbery's civil rights because of hatred of African Americans.

Now, this requires a little bit of explanation. You may say, well, wait a minute, I thought the government couldn't try you twice. Isn't there a double jeopardy clause in the Constitution? And the answer to those observations is yes and yes. So the double jeopardy clause in the Constitution has been interpreted in a very narrow way. It basically means that the same government can't try you twice. So if these guys that were convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in state court had been acquitted in state court, then the state of Georgia could not try them again. But since their behavior, according to the Supreme Court of the United States, triggered the violation of two laws, one the law against homicide in the state of Georgia, and the other the law against violating civil rights based on race in the federal system,

the court permits the two prosecutions. Now, this is not without a lot of controversy. The Supreme Court of the United States in a very recent case just a year and a half ago, two years ago, excuse me, involving the possession by a felon of a weapon in Alabama, where the felon arguably violated both Alabama law and federal law, the Supreme Court, by a vote of seven to two, permitted the second prosecution saying these are two different jurisdictions and they can't be denied the right to enforce their own laws. One is the state of Alabama, the other is the federal government. It's a very interesting dissent in that case. You know why I'm smiling in a minute, because the dissent was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, probably the

most libertarian-oriented justice on the Supreme Court today, and it was concurred in, it was two years ago now, by the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the most liberal and progressive member of the court. This is an area where libertarians, even those on the right, and progressives on the left agree. A double jeopardy means no double jeopardy, no second trial. The feds want to try them, they get to go first, but you can't have two trials. They can't serve two life terms, but that's effectively what will happen to them. They've already been sentenced to life in prison in a state court. What the feds will do is probably a comparable sentence, and there'll be some sort of a debate

over where they go. They would obviously prefer to be in a federal prison because the safety, security, and conditions are considerably better than most state prisons, but the state tried them and convicted them first. Judge Napolitano, judging freedom. We'll be right back. available 24-7 and monthly start dates, you can earn your degree on your schedule. You may even be able to graduate sooner than you think by demonstrating mastery of the material you know. Make 2025 the year you focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu.