The verdict in the trial against Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor William Bryan Jr., who murdered Ahmaud Arbery as he was running in a Georgia neighborhood, has been released. A jury has found them guilty, relying heavily on video evidence of the lynching they carried out. 

The last words 25 year-old Ahmaud Arbery heard before bleeding to death, were “f*****g n****r” yelled from the mouth of one of his murderers, as he stood over him in the middle of the residential street.

“All three of these defendants made assumptions, made assumptions about what was going on that day,” prosecutor Linda Dunikoski said. “And they made their decision to attack Ahmaud Arbery in their driveways, because he was a Black man running down the street.”

These assumptions were rooted in prejudice and racism, which led to murder. 

“While this history has repeated itself for centuries in America, every time it happens, it feels unfathomable and unbearable. Witnessing the Aubrey family get justice,  after these men brutally killed  an innocent man, fuels us to keep working and fighting.” LaTwyla Mathias, Executive Director at Progress Virginia said. “We work each day to end the cycle of prejudice and racism which leads to murder and genocide. We work to dismantle structures whose foundations are cemented with the blood and tears released by bigoted and discriminatory practices. Every day, we fight to achieve our end goal—a Virginia where every community member matters and has an opportunity to thrive. We will continue to work to disrupt racism in all its forms, hidden and in plain view, across the Commonwealth.”

Background:

• Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael and their neighbor William Bryan Jr., chased and then killed Ahmaud Arbery on February 23, 2020 in Brunswick, Georgia 
• Ahmaud Arbery, an avid runner, was out on a jog through the Satilla Shores neighborhood, when he was shot and killed. 
• This verdict comes on the heels of the verdict that found Kyle Rittenhouse, the white supremacist who traveled across state lines and murdered two people at Black Lives Matter protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year, not guilty.
• On Wednesday, November 24th, 2021 a jury found all three men, Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor William Bryan Jr. guilty.