The three white men convicted of murder in Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting were found guilty of federal hate crimes Tuesday in a verdict that affirmed what family members and civil rights activists said all along: that he was chased down and killed because he was Black. The verdict — handed down one day before the second anniversary of Arbery’s death on Feb. 23, 2020 — was symbolic, coming just months after all three defendants were convicted of murder in a Georgia state court and sentenced to life in prison. But family and community members viewed the hate crimes trial as an important statement. The case also became part of a larger national reckoning on racial injustice after the graphic video of Arbery’s killing leaked online.
“Ahmaud will continue to rest in peace. But he will now begin to rest in power,” Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told reporters outside the courthouse. Defendants Greg and Travis McMichael sat stoically at the defense table as the guilty verdicts were read. When called one-at-a-time before the judge to discuss the next steps in their cases, the father and son answered with hushed voices. The McMichaels and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels were also convicted of the use of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.
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