The three murderers convicted on November 24 of the Georgia February 2020 slaying of Ahmaud Arbery, 25, were found guilty in the Arbery’s family federal civi rights trial represented by Ben Crump on Tuesday of committing federal hate crimes and attempted kidnapping.
“The evidence’s been put out, the world sees what happened and the world saw why Ahmaud died,” said Marcus Arbery, Sr., father of Ahmaud Arbery.
“All I can say is that we just want justice, 100% justice. Justice for Ahmaud,” said Marcus Arbery, Sr., father of Ahmaud Arbery.
Civil rights activists have raised valid alarms concerning the lag time in arrests of the three men as the latest example of law enforcement allowing white perpetrators to go unpunished in the unjustified killing of Black people.
The predominantly white jury deliberated for about four hours over two days before returning the verdict of Travis McMichael, 36; his father, former police officer Gregory McMichael, 66; and a neighbor, William Bryan, 52, guilty of federal hate crimes in the U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia.
This ruling comes after prosecutors in the state trial avoided characterizing the killing as racist. This ruling makes it clear the slaying was unequivocally racially motivated.
The McMichaels insistence that they merely acted out of self-defense to Arbery jogging held little water as their defense only called one witness to the prosecution’s twenty witnesses.
Prosecutors presented incriminating evidence and testimony from several witnesses which verified the hate-crime allegations. The evidence presented to the jury illustrated that the men had long histories of using slurs and making racist statements.
The civil trial ruled for an additional conviction of a federal firearms charge for The McMichaels.
“All the evidence’s been put out, the world sees what happened and the world see why Ahmaud died. Because (of) his skin color,” said Arbery, Sr. at the hate-crime conviction ruling.
