Evan Branan | November 24, 2021<\/p>\n
All three killers of Ahmaud Arbery \u2014 who murdered him in a racist lynching while he was jogging in Brunswick, Ga., on Feb. 23, 2020 \u2014 have been found guilty of their crimes.<\/p>\n
All three faced the charges of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two charges of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony. They received the following convictions:<\/p>\n
Travis McMichael \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Guilty on all charges<\/p>\n Greg McMichael \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Guilty on all but malice murder<\/p>\n William Bryan \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Guilty on all but malice murder, 1 count of felony murder, and 1 charge of felony assault<\/p>\n Although sentencing has yet to take place \u2014 and despite some of the charges being evaded by two of the killers \u2014 all three are set to spend the rest of their lives in prison. They also face a federal trial for hate crimes set to begin on Feb. 7 next year.<\/p>\n It was only because of last year\u2019s historic surge in the movement for Black lives that Ahmaud Arbery\u2019s murder was even prosecuted in the first place. The built-in advantage that racist killers have in the U.S. court system could only be overcome by the collective power of the millions who participated across the country in this uprising and demanded that justice be done. The state\u2019s initial response to the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery was to let the killers walk free for more than two months, only arresting them on May 7 after people took to the streets upon the release of the video of the murder on May 5.<\/p>\n The legal system\u2019s racist biases were glaring throughout this trial, including racist questions asked to prospective jurors to establish a Jim Crow-style jury that excluded Black residents, along with the\u00a0months-long cover-up by the initial prosecutor Jackie Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n Significant victories have been won throughout this fight for justice for Ahmaud Arbery. Georgia Governor Brain Kemp was forced to sign the state\u2019s first-ever hate crime bill into law and significantly change Georgia\u2019s Civil War-era slave catching law \u2014 the citizen\u2019s arrest law that was cited by the defense lawyers in the courtroom.<\/p>\n It was the people\u2019s movement, which brought tens of millions of people into the streets in a rebellion against white supremacy in the summer of 2020, that forced the U.S. \u201cjustice system\u201d to deliver this verdict. The courts do not serve justice, only the people taking to the streets by the millions do.<\/p>\n