According to the Supreme Court, this second prosecution does not amount to double jeopardy, because the state and federal crimes, defined by two different “sovereigns,” are not “the same offense.” But since Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan are already serving life sentences, you might wonder why the federal government is bothering to prosecute them again.
The answer seems to be that the Justice Department wants to condemn them as racists as well as murderers. “This is the kind of case you really need to do to send the message that the Justice Department won’t tolerate this type of racist hatred that results in violence,” former federal prosecutor Shan Wu told The Washington Post. Federal prosecutors are using the trial to make a moral statement about the defendants’ beliefs, which is not ordinarily seen as a legitimate function of criminal courts.
