Jury finds all of Ahmaud Arbery’s accused killers guilty
29th November 2021 · 0 Comments
By Pat Bryant
Contributing Writer
Three white men who chased down and killed a Black jogger in Brunswick, Georgia, were found guilty of felony murder. The conviction comes after nationwide protests and community organizing in Brunswick. Travis McMichael, 32, his father Gregory McMichael, 65, and William Rodie Bryan sat emotionless when the jury verdict was read.
Travis McMichael, who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, has been found guilty of all nine charges including malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and attempt to commit a felony. His father, Gregory McMichael, and neighbor William Rodie Bryant were found guilty of eight charges except malice murder. Bryant, who videoed the chase and killing, has been found guilty of three counts of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and one charge of attempt to commit a felony.
Barbara Arnwine, executive director of Transformative Justice Coalition, declared the verdict “a major victory against racist hate.” Attorney Arnwine admonished the defense attorneys, “the defense used every ugly, racist and low strategy to acquit these men but the Truth prevailed and were found guilty”
Dr. Gregory Moss quoted a well-known James Russell Lowell passage: “Truth forever on the scaffold. Wrong forever on the throne. But the scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown, standeth God, keeping watch on his own.” Dr. Moss is the former Charlotte, N.C., activist minister, and former head of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission. He went on to say, “accountability in this country has been a dirty word. For once we have witnessed it.”
Leading up to the verdict, more than 1,000 religious leaders from around the nation prayed at the Glynn County, Ga., Courthouse in Brunswick. Later the same day, about three hundred Blacks and whites of all ages marched with signs and chanted for justice on the last day of defense testimony.
The defense lawyers ended with testimony and a cross-examination of triggerman Travis McMichael and six neighbors who talked about crime in the Satilla Shores community. Prosecutors cross-examined Travis McMichael over inconsistencies in courtroom testimony and earlier statements made to Glynn County Sheriff and Georgia Bureau of investigation.
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski picked apart Travis McMichael’s self defense claim. McMichael admitted that he did not call police before he chased Ahmaud Arbery, knew of no crime that had been committed, and did not see any weapon the jogger had. After a five-minute chase by white men in two trucks, a fatal confrontation in which Travis McMichael held a shotgun, Arbery was killed. Travis told investigators “we trapped him like a rat.”
Religious leaders, mostly Black, flocked to Brunswick and surrounded the courthouse entrance. By coming to this sleepy town, the pastors defied and challenged Defense Attorney Kevin Gough’s many attempts to get Judge Timothy Walmsley to bar high profile civil rights leaders and icons the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton from attending, saying their presence was intimidating the jury. The court refused the defense attorneys’ demands.
But protestors covered the courthouse steps and lawn holding signs, hydrating and shading under massive live oak trees. And when Jesse Jackson and Ahmaud Arbery’s father, mother and other family emerged from the court, the crowd chanted “justice for Ahmaud.”
“It is important because we are for right and we need to stand for what is right. Right is right and wrong is wrong. If we are going to be pastors we have to stand for right,” said the Rev. Charlie McClendon, pastor of Northside Church of Christ in Jacksonville, Fla.
“It is important for me to be here because I am a Black man, a Muslim, and because I care for the young people in our country and let them know that people like me. They have a fear of Blacks and because Black pastors are there they know that we have God in our lives. Many of them are afraid of this,” said Brother Raul of Waycross, Ga.
Ruby Arbery, Ahmaud’s aunt, welcomed freedom fighters saying “we are fighting the justice system here. We need a lot of support in the case of my nephew and support from all over the world. They are still doing what they were doing 400 years ago. We aren’t taking it anymore. No Justice no peace.”
“Today’s guilty verdicts rendered to the brutal white supremacist murders of Ahmaud Arbery was a historic defeat for the proponents [of] American apartheid and racism,” said Dr. Benjamin Chavis, executive director of National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). “Next will be the appropriate sentencing of these racist murderers. A Luta Continua: The struggle continues for freedom, justice and equality for all of humanity.”
87-year-old Annie Polite says, “I guess that they realize Black ministers have a hand for God. This is all God’s plan. We need to be involved.”
Iris Jones, a mother and aunt of several Black men who lives in Florida, says she grew up in 60, 70, 80’s Washington, D.C., and had heard stories of brutality of Blacks in the South and she saw some of it. “Enough is enough. If we sit down and do nothing it is just like not participating. We have to get involved to make a change.”
Prophet Chris Trader from Atlanta, Ga., said it touched his heart. “We have to stand up for justice. It does not matter where it happened. It could have been my child or your child.”
The Rev. Jane Page, a Brunswick pastor, remarked that local involvement is for justice and called for a period of prayer regularly. “We have got to live in this community and it is important to get it right,” he said.
Louisiana Congressman Troy Carter also released a statement regarding the guilty verdicts, calling them a “step toward accountability and a justice system that extends equal protection under law to every American.”
“Ahmaud Arbery should still be here today. People who murder others must be held accountable. Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan unjustly killed Ahmaud Arbery after they racially profiled him,” Carter said.
“Too many people have attempted to slander and victim-blame a young man whose only crime was jogging while Black. One day I hope that we are a nation where Black people can jog, play, protest, and exist without fear of hatred or violence. I will not stop fighting until that day is a reality,” Carter said.
Pat Bryant is a longtime journalist who covers events in the Southern United States.
This article originally published in the November 29, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
