Good news just in time for a too-brief Thanksgiving break.
The three White men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery in coastal Georgia last year were convicted of murder Wednesday in a case that many saw as a test of racial bias in the justice system.
Travis McMichael, his father, Greg McMichael, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan were found guilty of felony murder in the shooting of Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man. Travis McMichael was also convicted of malice murder, or intent to kill. All three men, who still face federal hate crime charges, could receive life in prison without parole.
That whole assault was a horror show, as were the Rittenhouse murders. It’s exhausting that the law in this country so abjectly panders to armed white men and their sense of entitlement that whether one of them goes to jail after killing someone is a crap shoot. The dice came up for justice this one time.
The lights are on in Georgia.
Just a reminder though…they had video of the crime, recorded from the assailants themselves, where 3 people cornered an unarmed jogging man and shot him with their shotgun. Very clear cut crime occurred.
It still took the jury 10 HOURS to convict them. What was the holdout’s possible counter-argument?
Jury instructions and laws are written in the bullshit lawyer language. Probably 9.5 hours of those 10 hours were spent trying to understand what the hell the law actually says, with its exceptions and whatnot.
I can’t believe these guys committed homicide and thought they could get away with it because in there minds the victim was less than an animal. BTW they were found guilty but they haven’t been sentenced yet. The Judge could easily Brock Turner this shit. I’m not celebrating until each one of these fuckers in in prison for a good long time.
mamba@3 part of the deliberations was deciding what to actually convict these guys of. They were charged with both felony murder and what is called malice murder in Georgia. Only Travis McMichael was convicted on the charge of malice murder. All 3 faced 4 charges of felony murder, but William Bryan was only convicted of 2 counts.
[Insert butterfly meme here]
Is this… justice?
Ray @ 5
The only penalties the judge can impose are life without parole and life with a minimum before parole is possible, and the shortest period they can get before eligibility is 30 years. They are going away for a long time, no doubt about that.
I don’t know if what I’m feeling is schadenfreude, but, yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s what it is.
In related good news, the Georgia prosecutor who tried to quash the case despite clear video evidence of the lynching was just booked into jail today.
https://www.rawstory.com/jackie-johnson-georgia/
@10 Artor
Jesus man, that article is fucking nuts! Worth a read for everyone. It would have been so easy for them to sweep this on under the rug. Without that leaked video, Arbery would just be another body.
The fact that it took a video of the crime and 3 months to get the killer arrested is a solid gold example of systemic racism.
it’s really to understand those three state of mind how they could do something like that and have no regret and feel justified in any way at all.
I know that they could do that but I just do not know how. They live in a different reality I guess.
how it took so long before the justice system could actually react is easier to understand as just political corruption plain and simple.
it’s really hard to understand that is
As others have said before me, without the video and the public outcry, nothing would have happened. This is not a turning point in American “justice.”
But I guess we can say that, because the outcry did make a difference, the powers that be in Georgia are not entirely shameless.
And a racist DA is knocked off the perch.
Artor@10–
That’s a good story, but on the on the same page is the link-headline ‘QAnon “queen” orders 70,000 followers to “shoot to kill” anyone vaccinating children.’
So I guess she’s about to be arrested for inciting violence…right?
Justice in the US is still a crap shoot.
Actually, it turns out that “queen” is Canadian. Which increases the chances of her being properly dealt with by the law by, what, 5%?