Three men convicted of hate crimes in Ahmaud Arbery's death

Outside the federal courthouse in Brunswick, Georgia, Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery stood together, hands joined, moments after learning that three men had been found guilty of hate crimes in their son's death. The verdict arrived one day before the second anniversary of Ahmaud Arbery's killing—a small legal marker in a case that has consumed two years of their lives.

The jury, overseen by Judge Lisa Godbey Wood, determined that Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan had violated Ahmaud Arbery's civil rights by targeting the 25-year-old because he was Black. The three men had already been convicted of murder in Georgia state court and sentenced to life in prison for the fatal shooting. The federal convictions added another layer: the McMichaels and Bryan were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the father and son faced additional charges for using a firearm in the commission of a crime.

Yet Cooper-Jones, standing in the courthouse aftermath, refused to frame the guilty verdicts as victory. "We as a family will never get victory because Ahmaud is gone forever," she said. Her words carried the weight of a mother who had fought not just for conviction but for the right to have her case heard at all. Federal prosecutors had proposed plea deals with the three accused men—a path that would have bypassed trial entirely. Cooper-Jones objected. She wanted the case to proceed. The judge did not reject the plea bargains until multiple family members voiced their opposition. "They ignored my cry," Cooper-Jones said of the prosecutors. "I told the DOJ, yes, they were prosecutors, but they didn't have a son lying in a cold grave."

Marcus Arbery, Ahmaud's father, spoke of the emotional toll the trials had exacted and the role faith and family had played in sustaining him through it. He credited Cooper-Jones for her resolve. "I give all glory to Wanda," he said. He remembered his son's daily calls home, the affection that threaded through their relationship. "He loved this family, he called us every day," Marcus Arbery recalled. "If he had one word to tell you, it was, 'I love you, pop. I love you, mama.'"

Georgia designated February 23 as Ahmaud Arbery Day, marking both the gravity of his death and the legal proceedings that followed. The family's attorneys noted the significance of the convictions as an example of Black victims in fatal shootings receiving criminal justice—a contrast they drew to other cases where accountability remained elusive. Breonna Taylor's death in 2020 had not resulted in charges against law enforcement. In DeKalb County, officers claimed they fatally shot Matthew Zadok Williams in self-defense, though his family said he was experiencing a mental health crisis.

The Arbery family's legal fight is not finished. They have filed a civil lawsuit against Jackie Johnson, the former Glynn County district attorney, accusing her of covering up Ahmaud Arbery's murder. The hate crimes convictions represent a milestone, but for a family that has lost a son, the measure of justice remains incomplete.