Government gave strong evidence Ahmaud Arbery's killers saw him as 'less than human': former prosecutor

On Monday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," former federal prosecutor Elie Honig analyzed the hate crime trial of Travis and Gregory McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan, the vigilantes convicted for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.

"Do you think prosecutors proved beyond a reasonable doubt that these defendants killed Arbery because of his race?" asked anchor Wolf Blitzer.

"Because this is a federal hate crimes trial, the prosecutors have to prove that not only the defendants wrongfully killed Ahmaud Arbery, but they did so because of his race," said Honig. "To that end, they introduced evidence that all three defendants used racist language, racial epithets, at times anticipating violence against racial minorities."

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And it wasn't just the killers' actions before Arbery's death that prosecutors found damning, noted Honig.

"The prosecution stressed, after Ahmaud Arbery, the defendants did nothing to come to his aid, showing they saw him as something less than human," he said. "And so that will be up to the jury. They certainly have plenty of evidence. If they find it beyond a reasonable doubt, we'll see guilty verdicts."

Watch below:

Elie Honig evaluates evidence in hate crime trial for Ahmaud Arbery's killerswww.youtube.com