Explainer: What’s Behind the Federal Anti-Lynching Legislation?
President Joe Biden is expected to sign into law the first bill that specifies lynching as a federal hate crime.
President Joe Biden is expected to sign into law the first bill that specifies lynching as a federal hate crime.
The white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery as he ran on a residential street remained free for more than two months, with police and prosecutors appearing to accept their story that the young Black man was a fleeing criminal who turned and attacked before being fatally shot.
In the Superior Court of Glynn County, Wanda Cooper-Jones, mother of Ahmaud Arbery took the podium to tell her story of what life has been like for her family without her son. Embarking on the unimaginable act of reading a victim impact statement, Cooper-Jones read a message to her son filled with emotion, “This verdict doesn’t bring you back, but it does help bring closure to this very difficult chapter of my life,” she said.
After nearly two years of pain, suffering, and wondering if the men who killed Ahmaud Arbery would pay for their heinous crime, the 25-year-old’s family finally received justice.
A Georgia jury made up of nine White women, two White men and one Black man, deliberated for just about 11 hours, returning a verdict of guilty on Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr., three White men found guilty of killing Ahmaud Arbery by a jury of their peers.
Tears streak down the cheek of Ahmaud Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones after the jury convicted Travis McMichael in the Glynn County Courthouse, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021, in Brunswick, Ga. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, Pool)
Ahmaud Arbery’s mother woke up Thursday with a new, very important blessing on Thanksgiving Day.
After more than 11 hours of deliberation and eight days of testimony, a nearly all-white jury in the seaside town of Brunswick, Ga., have brought back guilty verdicts for all three men charged in the shooting death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. Travis McMichael, 35; Gregory McMichael, 65, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, face sentences of up to life in prison. Glynn County Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley will decide if those convictions come with or without the possibility of parole. Judge Walmsley did not immediately schedule a sentencing date.
William “Roddie” Bryan, who recorded the cellphone video that showed the killing of Ahmaud Arbery and sparked outrage when it surfaced two months later, was convicted of murder Wednesday.
A judge denied mistrial requests on Monday at the trial of three white men charged with murdering Ahmaud Arbery after defense attorneys claimed jurors were tainted by weeping from the gallery where the slain Black man’s parents sat with the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
A judge denied mistrial requests on Monday at the trial of three white men charged with murdering Ahmaud Arbery after defense attorneys claimed jurors were tainted by weeping from the gallery where the slain Black man’s parents sat with the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The morning’s testimony was largely disrupted by arguments outside the jury’s presence over Jackson’s appearance. The judge said he found one defense lawyer’s complaints last week about Black pastors to be “reprehensible,” and that no group would be excluded from his courtroom.
As jury selection got slowly underway Monday in the trial of three white men charged with fatally shooting Ahmaud Arbery as he was running in their Georgia neighborhood, potential jurors said they came in with negative feelings about the case and worried about the personal consequences of serving on the jury.
The slaying of the 25-year-old Black man sparked a national outcry fueled by graphic video of the shooting leaked online more than two months after Arbery was killed. Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan are charged with murder and other crimes in Arbery’s death on Feb. 23, 2020, just outside the port city of Brunswick.
Wendy’s Window
Every election has its firsts. The 2020 presidential election was no different. In 2016, we saw the first election where social media was viewed by voters’ more than traditional media. Trump was head and shoulders better than Hilary on social media. He continued to be a master of the medium, until he got kicked off.
Drivefile is a free, non-profit app built in hopes of establishing what the organization feels will be a new standard of police accountability. Drivefile (available for both Android and iPhone smartphones) generates anonymous traffic stop data that could be utilized on its own or cross-referenced with law enforcement records, enabling the scrutiny of police performance on a granular level.