This is a good day. A few months ago, when the composition of the Ahmaud Arbery jury was announced, I despaired. The fact that there were three defendants allowed the defense to get three times as many peremptory challenges as the prosecution, and they used it to get an 11-1 White jury. But that didn’t work out so well for the purely racist defense, as the jury convicted all three men on the vast majority of the charges, and all were basically sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The man that civil rights activist and MSNBC host Reverend Al Sharpton likes to call The Attorney General of Black America, attorney Benjamin Crump stated, This was not justice. Justice would be Ahmad Arbery walking through the door and kissing his family. But it was accountability. And the family is grateful to the jury for some form of closure.

Well, today the family of Ahmad Arbery got even more closure in the murder of their son, and a far more reaching sense of accountability. Because it took a federal district court in Atlanta less than 2 hours to convict the same three shitheels of civil rights hate crimes violations in Arbury’s death. And that verdict not only pounded the last nail in the coffins of these three racist assholes, it gave the family of Ahmad Marbery a whole new level of closure and accountability.

Last night, MSNBC host Ali Velshi put it better than I ever could when he summed up the case, and the jury deliberations by saying, If the jury finds these men guilty, they won’t find them guilty for killing a black man, they will find them guilty of killing a man for the crime of being black. 

And that is exactly what that jury in Atlanta did today. They found that thoise three racist shithells had killed Ahmad Marbery not because they seriously thought that he was responsible for a series of crimes in the neighborhood, but because he was black, and he was inception on their turf. And today a federal jury called them what they were, right to their faces, Fucking racists!

Dear God, we need to do this more often. While many states already have hate crime statutes on their books, they are almost never used! And while the US criminal code has hate crimes statutes in it, at last count, the DOJ rejected 83% of the federal hate crimes that were brought before them for consideration. Look, I know that all prosecutors tend to pick and choose their cases when possible. A loss, especially in a high profile case. It tends to fuck up their raises and chances for advancement. But this case is a clarions call that hate crimes can be successfully prosecuted.

We have spent literally decades promoting racial equity, and equal justice under the law. And yet, time and time again, the criminal justice system, both local and federal has failed to respond to the widespread systemic racism we face. The Marbery jury just lit the lamp. It’s time for prosecutors, both state and federal to start answering the call. Call systemic racism what it is, and the record be damned. We owe the African American community that accountability.

 

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5 COMMENTS

  1. This case and the George Floyd trials give me hope that America is finally ready for true racial justice. I sincerely hope the tide is turning in that regard. Similarly, the me too movement has hopefully moved the needle for sexual crimes.

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  2. I read an article from channel 4 in Jacksonville that now that the three racist shitstains have received their just “rewards”, the family has turned their attention to former Brunswick DA Jackie Johnson, who was indicted in September for Violating her Oath of Office as well as obstructing police by instructing the police to not arrest said shitstains.

    Since then, per a court clerk, NOTHING has been scheduled regarding her case, including entering a formal plea in the case.

    The family wants to know why that is so and frankly, I too am interested in the reasoning behind that as most defendants face a judge within 72 hours of arrest.

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