Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan - the three white men involved in Ahmaud Arbery's killing - have been found guilty of murder in the vigilante shooting of the 25-year-old Black jogger they racially profiled in Brunswick, Georgia.

“Turning Ahmaud Arbery into a victim after the choices that he made does not reflect the reality of what brought Ahmaud Arbery to Satilla Shores in his khaki shorts, with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails,” said Laura Hogue, who represents Greg McMichael.

Beyond the verdict, the group has emphasized the need for transparent investigations of police misconduct and prosecutorial accountability for the first two prosecutors who obstructed justice. 

Lawyers for William "Roddie" Bryan, one of the three white men charged with murdering Ahmaud Arbery, reportedly offered a plea deal to the prosecution, but it was immediately rejected, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt said.

Race Matters

Rev. Jesse Jackson attended the court proceedings in the trial over Ahmaud Arbery's death days after defense attorney Kevin Gough declared in front of a judge and jury that “We don’t want any more Black pastors here.”

Race Matters

Kevin Gough, the attorney representing William “Roddie” Bryan, one of the three white men accused of hunting down and killing Ahmaud Arbery, stood up in court and declared before a judge that “We don’t want any more Black pastors here," in response to Al Sharpton being allowed to sit with Arbery's family.

Glynn County police Sgt. Roderic Nohilly testified that when speaking with Greg McMichael at police headquarters after the shooting, Greg told him Arbery “wasn’t out for no Sunday jog. He was getting the hell out of there,” and that he, Travis and William Bryan had him "trapped like a rat.”

During the third day of testimony in the trial for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, Judge Timothy R. Walmsley stopped court proceedings to scold defense attorney Jason Sheffield for being rude and disrespectful to the court.

Minshew said at one point Bryan questioned whether he should've even been chasing Arbery. But there does not seem to be a moment when he thought he was executing a citizen's arrest, as has been alleged by the defendants multiple times.

It took two and a half weeks for a jury to be selected in the murder case of Greg and Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr.—the three men accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery—and somehow, after that unusually long process, 11 white people and just one Black person ended up on the panel. 

The citizen's arrest law that Ahmaud Arbery's accused killers used in an attempt to justify their deadly violence could play an outsized role in their murder trial.

Opinion

Amid jury selection in the trial for Ahmaud Arbery's killing, it's important to remember that the playbook for low-tech lynching is always the same: When you can’t prove white innocence, prove white victimization.