By Catherine Hamilton and Delilah Hammons
BRUNSWICK, GA — On Feb. 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was fatally shot during a supposed citizen’s arrest made by Gregory and Travis McMichael, and filmed by resident William Bryan, as noted by CNN.
About 21 months later, all were found guilty of murder for Arbery’s death.
Impact Justice released the following statement in response to the guilty verdicts of the three defendants:
“We stand with people across the country who support the guilty verdict as the only reasonable and decent outcome in this case and yet long for more. There is no justice when three white men feel empowered to chase, corner, and execute a young, unarmed Black man, even if they face life sentences after the fact. Justice requires more than retribution.
“The atypical verdict in this case and herculean efforts required to achieve it will not advance justice unless we address the causes of racialized violence in America. That includes legal systems coast to coast that are stacked against Black people.
“For every white person whose erroneous claim of self-defense is vindicated by largely white juries, most recently Kyle Rittenhouse, there are scores of Black people who fought for their lives and yet are prosecuted and punished as if they were the aggressors.
“More generally, systems unfairly criminalize and excessively punish Black people every day in ways that not only undercut their lives and further marginalize their communities but also reinforce long-established stereotypes of Black people as deviant, dangerous, and less than human.
“Transforming this system is a massive undertaking that requires us to confront the widespread harms inherent in existing legal systems and 
instead build truly humane, restorative systems of justice, efforts to which Impact Justice contributes.
“We stand with the family of Ahmaud Arbery and countless others whose loved ones are forever gone, acknowledge the gravity of these losses, and continue to fight for a more just world.”
Arbery was jogging through a neighborhood just outside of Brunswick, Georgia towards a stopped pickup truck. Travis McMichael, 35, was standing near the driver’s side of the door holding a shotgun, while his father, Gregory McMichael, 65, was in the bed of the truck, reported news reports.
Another resident of the neighborhood, William Bryan, 52, began filming the incident between Arbery and the McMichaels, but the video didn’t surface until two months after Arbery was killed. CNN said it wasn’t until after the video appeared that Gregory and Travis McMichael faced any charges and the case really began.
The McMichaels pleaded not guilty, insisting that they were making a citizen’s arrest and acting in self-defense. The two said they believed that Arbery was the one responsible for the recent alleged burglaries in the neighborhood. Later, a Glynn County Police spokesperson revealed that seven weeks prior to the shooting, one burglary had been reported.
Four months later, the three suspects were indicted on murder charges – all three pleaded not guilty. Bond was denied for all of them.
The trial began in Oct. with a two-and-a-half-week-long jury selection process, wherein the prosecution accused the defense counsel of eliminating potential jurors because of their race, according to BBC.
After an all-white jury with only one Black man was selected, Judge Timothy Walmsley said there appeared to be “intentional discrimination” during the jury selection, BBC reported, but allowed the trial to continue.
Drawing further criticism of the trial proceedings, the defense attorney representing Bryan, Kevin Gough, said that they didn’t “want any more Black pastors coming” into the courthouse, according to a CNN article.
Gough said the pastors were intimidating and possibly swaying the decision of the jury, new media reported, but Judge Walmsley said that, as long as they weren’t causing disruptions, he would not “blanketly exclude members of the public from this courtroom.”
Gough apologized for his comment the next day, but he already added to the conversation of race surrounding the trial.
Even though racial discrimination played a key role, the prosecution did not pose their case as a racially motivated attack. Assistant District Attorney of Cobb County Linda Dunikoski avoided the topic of race and rather focused on how the three defendants chased and trapped Ahmaud Arbery, according to the New York Times.
Gough, quoted in the New York Times article, said that Dunikoski “found a clever way of bringing the issue up that wouldn’t be offensive to the right-leaning members of the jury.”
The verdicts were:
- Travis McMicheal was found guilty on all charges, which were malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony.
- Gregory McMichael was found guilty on all charges except for malice murder.
- William Bryan was found guilty of three counts of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony.
Their attorneys have said they will file for an appeal.
The verdict of the trial comes in stark contrast with the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on Nov. 19, an 18-year-old who crossed state borders with a firearm to allegedly protect businesses from protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, WI, according to NPR.
Both cases bring up the question of how far Second Amendment rights and self-defense claims can go, with two very different outcomes.
While CNN has said the dates for the defendants’ sentencing are unclear, the prosecutors are looking for life in prison without parole. All three defendants were additionally indicted on federal hate crime charges, and that trial is scheduled for February 2022.
Yet the jury unanimously convicted all three white defendants. So what does that say?
Two totally different cases, it’s like comparing apples to oranges. Both verdicts were the correct outcome.
If your outcome is the advancement of a singular political agenda, I guess you could claim that, sorta. If your goal is justice for those victimized or accused, which is what courts are FOR . . .
Ahmaud Arbery’s murder was a horror reminiscent of a lynching. That anyone tried to downplay this to the point of not prosecuting is reprehensible.
Trying to equate this in any way with Kyle Rittenhouse is a certain backfire. Much of the media seriously misreported the Rittenhouse case and many seemed to be expecting conviction, thought it was clear to me watching multiple media sources that a) he wasn’t going to be convicted; b) many were going to expect him to be.
I am quite serious that it is worth watching one of the post-trial interviews with Rittenhouse, even if you have to hold your nose at the venue. I see no advantage to him stating his beliefs as he does. He’s already lost much of the left, and much of what he says will alienate many on the right.
He comes across as reasonable. Really he does. Not that a 17-year-old should be carrying a rifle in a crowd in my opinion. But that wasn’t what the trial was about, nor was it illegal.
Regarding self-defense, many (including those leaning left) have pointed out that the laws are written as they are to protect domestic abuse victims – who would have to prove their innocence rather than their guilt if the self-defense laws were written the other way – that the assumption was you have to prove your innocence. Think long and hard about the implications before declaring your position on this.
Agree with most of this including Rittenhouse’s comments himself.
Or maybe people should be prosecuted for what they do rather than what they think or who they are . . . and maybe, just maybe, the “right-leaning members of the jury” actually took the case on its merit. This time.
Yeah, it’s all about race 😐
Pray tell a white father had said that, with the same intent 😐
It is about race, there is no way Ahmaud is killed like that if he’s white. But from a human standpoint, he’s right, anyone killed like that is horrible.
Speculation. I believe it’s entirely possible that he would have been. I believe it is less-likely, in that particular situation.
Anyone killed in any way is horrible. There are many more white people killed by blacks than blacks killed by whites.
Do you ever just go, yes, this murder was racially motivated, period. End of story. The rest is irrelevant to this case.
That is almost certainly true. I don’t mean to downplay the horror of this sort of 19th century racial hatred.
Yup
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/as-controversy-over-his-enrollment-swirls-asu-says-kyle-rittenhouse-is-not-currently-a-student/ar-AARjdmo?li=BBnb7Kz
Not what I’d picture him studying. I’m starting to think from this and his other comments that he really isn’t the person that some portrayed him as.
Then again, I’d suggest following his orders, if he does become a nurse. 🙂
I disagree. It’s about 3 guys who were trying to stop someone whom (they) believed committed multiple crimes in the area, and whom (they) believed had just done so.
Now, if you want to talk about “why” they suspected that guy, then you might start talking about “race”. And if you really want to talk about race (skin color), then you might explore more deeply the reason that race comes up.
But if it was only about race (skin color), they would have been out hunting down black people for no reason whatsoever.
By the way, is Keith correct (that more whites are killed or assaulted by black people), than vice-versa?
I’ve heard that more Asians are killed by black people, than by any other skin color (including by Asians).
Are we ready to have those type of conversations? And to what purpose?