All three of Ahmaud Arbery‘s murders have been convicted of a federal hate crime.
The news came out of Brunswick, Georgia on Feb. 22. Travis and Gregory McMichael as well as William “Roddie” Bryan were convicted of the hate crime one day shy of the two-year mark of when Arbery was killed while on a routine jog through the community.
He was 25 at the time of his death.
“I want to first say, ‘Thank you,’ to everyone who stood by us in this fight for justice for Ahmaud,” Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother, said at a press conference after the announcement was made. “It’s been a very long, stressful fight for the members of the community, for the city of Brunswick, the state of Georgia, the people who have stood with us through the nation of the United States of America. We would not be standing here today without each and every single one of you.”
Arbery’s case was stale following his death in 2020 until a local media outlet obtained footage of the killing. The footage went viral, pressuring local and federal courts to ramp up justice efforts for the former high school athlete. When asked if the latest conviction would bring more healing to Cooper-Jones, the answer was simple.
“Healing? I, as a mom, would never heal,” she said. “I want to go back to the DOJ. I told the DOJ that yes they were prosecutors, but one thing they didn’t have was a son that was lying in a cold grave, and they still didn’t hear my cry. Again, we got a victory today, but there are so many families who don’t get victories because of people that we have fighting for us … we as a family will never get victory because Ahmaud is gone forever.”
