Three white men accused of killing Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery have been found guilty by a jury’s verdict on Wednesday. James R. Sanders reports.
A jury in Georgia has found Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William Bryan guilty on several counts in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, 21 months after he was killed.
Travis McMichael who shot Arbery in February of 2020, has been convicted on all nine charges — including: malice murder, four counts of felony murder, aggravated assault with a shotgun, aggravated assault with a pickup truck, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony.
Gregory McMichael, who is Travis’ father, was not convicted of malice murder, but has been found guilty of all other counts.
William “Roddie” Bryan, who is the neighbor of the McMichaels was found guilty three of the felony murder counts as well as charges of aggravated assault with his pickup truck, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony.
Bryan’s attorney famously asked that ‘Black pastors’ be recused from the courtroom for fear of intimidating the jury.
“It’s been a long fight, it’s been a hard fight. God is good,” Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said during a news conference. Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, added, “Today is a good day.”
Rev. Al Sharpton, who was present throughout the entire trial, said “Let the word go out all over the world that a jury of 11 whites and one Black in the deep South stood up in the courtroom and said Black lives do matter.”