generations of black people who haveti endured losses like the arbery family has without ever seeing anyone held accountable. the generations of loss that have fueled protest after protest after protest. quote, the verdict in the trial over theer killing of ahmaud arbery is long overdue. ahmaud s death was unnecessary and fueled by racist ideologies deeply ingrained into the fabric of this nation. generations have seen this time and time againve with the murde of emmett till, trayvon martin, and many others. it went on to say there s a growing and deepening rift in america. we must fix what is genuinely harming our nation. white supremacy. the white house also weighed in, quote, while the guilty verdict was a result of us doing our job, it needs just a phrase em
of representation for indigent defendants. and we need to look at our justice system in a way that we can remove structural barriers based on race and create a system that s just for all citizens. and in many cases, the support for these families of these people who are killed comes from attorneys, pastors, leaders in the black community. a group that was called out particularly by one of the defense attorneys, what do you make of that? the idea that he called them a lynch mob, he said his client was being lynched in a case man, americans who have an intimate understanding and knowledge and fear of lynching believed it was an extrajudicial killing of ahmaud arbery who saw no trial and got no due process. well, it has been an effective tool, in the political environment it has been effective, and he was trying to use the tool of race to incite an outcome because his clients,
lynched. i thought that was some choice language. this happened outside the presence of the jury. they may be hearing those words for the first time after rendering their verdict. what do you think of that strategy, and do you think the social justice movements of the last year and a half triggered,t in part, by ahmaud arbery s death, do you think that they have actually changed the justice system, that they ve brought ath new consciousness t juries? i don t know that it s gone that far. f i think it has raised the awareness of the issues. but, again, those are just examples of how the racial undertones and possibly the thoughts of the defendants were then carried on by their defense counsel.f to be able to label and try to exclude only black pastors when so many pastors were absolutely disgusted by these facts. that, again, is the racial undertones. to strike so many qualified african americans from the jury. again, the prosecutor started the trial. the judge even said he thought th
crimes, racial crimes are happening are of the belief that it is not required to actually be on video. but in a courtroom, as a former prosecutor, having video, or having audiotapes or having things that captured all of the emotion of the moment, those are priceless in helping any prosecutor really convey what happened, and probably more importantly, refuting what a defense team may try to come in later and try to retool the facts or restate the facts in a way that s beneficial to them. throughout the trial, the defense counsel in particular for roddie bryan, the third mand charged, repeatedly raised the issue of black pastors in the classroom. one of them he was referring to was our colleague reverend al sharpton. he called them and other advocates for the family a literal mob. i was surprised that he used the term. he said his client was being
wanda cooper-jones, made the significance of that repeal crystal clear. she said, quote, unfortunately, we had to lose my son in this matter. had this bill been in place, i think it would protect young men jogging down the street. her son was not protected in february of 2020. those three men gunned him down in brunswick, georgia, and killed him in cold blood. those three men have been on trial for more than two weeks on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment. they claimed they had the right to chase and detain ahmaud arbery because of that citizen s arrest law, and they claimed that mr. arbery was shot in an act of self-defense. the prosecutors argued their actions didn t meet the standards of that law, and the defendants attacked ahmaud arbery because he was a black man running down the street. today, after ten hours of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict. they found all three men guilty of felony murder and false imprisonment.ou