Murder of Ahmaud Arbery: convicted men report hate crimes next | Black Lives Matter News

A U.S. jury this week condemned three white men for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, who was running after Georgia last year and shot a black man, in a decision that was approved for bringing a measure of justice to Arbery’s family.

He was found by an 11-member jury in Brunswick, Georgia on Wednesday Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, guilty of the murder of 25-year-old Bryan, among other charges.

“A jury thought so proof from their eyes and saw the wickedness of the heart of the murderers. May this verdict bring a small measure of peace to #AhmaudArbery’s family and loved ones, “said Stacey Abrams, a former Georgian candidate for governor. he said On Twitter.

The three men chased Arbery on February 23, 2020, across the coastal community of Satilla Shores, off Brunswick, and killed him with a shotgun. They are sentenced to life in prison, and a judge will decide whether or not to come with parole.

Although McMichaels and Bryan are expected to appeal their convictions, they still face an upcoming federal trial in which they will file hate crimes.

All three have he begged He is not guilty of a completely separate case that will not be affected by the results of the state trial this week, and a civil rights lawyer representing the Arbery family has said it will give him one last chance to get to the “core” of what he called. a lynching.

“This was based on Ahmaud Arbery’s skin color,” Benjamin Crump said before reading the verdict outside the Glynn County High Court in Brunswick on Wednesday.

A graphic video of Arbery’s murder was leaked two months after the three men chased and shot him, mostly in the white community.

He encouraged public protests against racism and resentment against blacks, as well as demanding accountability, and encouraged state officials in Georgia to take up the issue and eventually charge the trio.

The federal prosecution accuses the three men of hate crimes, alleging that they violated Arbery’s civil rights, for pursuing Black and killing him, among other things. It doesn’t show what evidence prosecutors can present to convince a jury that racism has played a role.

The Arbery family expects that proof allegedly used racist language Travis McMichael, who was shown nothing to the Glynn County jury, will eventually consider the justice system, Crump said.

In previous requests, the state prosecutor told the court that there was evidence of “racial animus” that motivated the defendants. At a liaison hearing, Travis McMichael, 35, said he used racial violence on social media and in a text message.

In a pre-trial hearing, an investigator said Bryan heard McMichael using a quarrel while standing on Arbery’s body, although McMichael’s lawyers raised doubts about Bryan’s reliability.

Prosecutors decided in 2020 that the young McMichael would not show the jury the vacant license plate he had placed in his truck. The plaque bears the old flag of the state of Georgia, and highlights the Confederate battle flag.

In recent years there has been a debate in the US over symbols, states and monuments related to Confederation, A group of 11 states in the southern United States that fought against the abolition of slavery in the 1860s.

Critics have said such monuments a display the dominance of whites, slavery, and decades of institutional racism, advocates say show southern pride.

“You’d better believe that a federal judge will be willing to hear evidence of racial animus, including specific text messages, when racial animus is a key element of the charge,” said Ayesha Bell Hardaway, Director of Social Justice at Case Western Reserve University. The institute told Reuters news agency.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement that there may be some overlap between the two cases between witnesses, but otherwise they were independent of each other.

Lawyers representing the three men at the federal trial did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood is scheduled to select a jury for the federal trial, which begins Feb. 7.