Social media timelines are buzzing about the Ahmaud Arbery verdicts. Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William “Robbie” Bryan were each found guilty of murder in addition to several other counts. The verdicts come following a controversial trial where defense attorneys were often criticized for their remarks. One lawyer was frustrated with Black pastors like Rev. Al Sharpton sitting in the courtroom with Ahmaud’s family while another faced backlash after speaking on Ahmaud’s “long, dirty toenails” in her closing arguments.
This case may be over, but its impact remains. The parents of Ahmaud Arbery spoke out immediately after learning their son’s killers’ fates, and they are happy that this chapter, at the very least, has ended.
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“It’s been a long fight. It’s been a hard fight. But God is good,” Wanda Cooper-Jones, Ahmaud’s mother, said. “To tell the truth, I never saw this day back in 2020. I never thought this day would come. But God is good… He will now rest in peace.”
Her lawyer, Lee Merritt, added, “Eighteen months ago when she learned about the murder of her son, they told her that she would just have to deal with it alone. They told her that there would be no arrest, that there would be no accountability, that there would be no justice. And she made her son a promise before she laid him in the ground, that his mom would fight for justice for him.”
Watch a video of Ahmaud Arbery’s parents thanking the public for their support throughout this ordeal below.
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