Ahmaud Arbery Trial: All Three Men Found Guilty On Hate Crime Charges

Source: change.org / other

Today marks two years since 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery was gunned down by Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan while jogging through Georgia’s Satilla Shores neighborhood. After a tumulous court trial, justice has finally been delivered to the Arbery family.

On Feb. 22, the three white men were found guilty of federal hate crimes in connection to Ahmaud’s death.  Each faces one count of interfering with an individual’s civil rights and one count of attempted kidnapping. During closing remarks this week, prosecutors strongly emphasized that Arbery’s death occurred because of the color of his skin.

“The three defendants did not see 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery as a fellow human being,” Assistant US Attorney Tara Lyons who represented the Arberys, said in court, according to CNN.

Following the verdict, Ahmaud’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones thanked the Department of Justice (DOJ) for following through on the case, but the grieving mother also reprimanded the department for offering the McMichaels a plea deal back in January, that would have allowed them to avoid trial and spend the first part of their sentence in a federal facility, the Atlanta Black Star noted. Travis McMichael originally agreed to plead guilty to one single hate crime, in exchange for a 30-year sentence in a federal facility. Upon completing his time, McMichael would have returned to Georgia to finish out his life without parole sentence, but the judge tossed the deal out. Gregory McMichael also withdrew his plea agreement shortly after his son’s failed. This “unauthorized backroom deal” was made unbeknownst to the family, according to Cooper-Jones.

“I now want to address the members of the DOJ. I am very thankful that you guys brought these charges of hate crime, but back on Jan. 31, you guys extended a plea deal with these three murderers who took my son’s life,” she said at a news conference after the verdict.

The family was given the opportunity to contest against the plea deal, but Cooper-Jones explained during her emotional speech that if it wasn’t for the family putting up a good fight, prosecutors and the DOJ would have followed through on the unfair deal.

“Marcus [Arbery] and two of Ahmaud’s aunties stood before the courts and begged the judge not to take a plea deal that the DOJ went before the judge and asked him to [consider],” she recalled of the experience. “As I traveled to Brunswick, on that Sunday afternoon, I spoke to Kristen Clarke and the lead attorney Tara Lyons, begging them to please not take this plea deal. They ignored my cry.”