He said that while he believed that the guilty verdicts showed that acts of racial violence still happen in the United States, “we are moving in the right direction.” Marcus Ransom said that there were three moments in the trial that brought him to tears.
Ransom said that wrong is wrong and right right, in an interview with The New York Times published Tuesday. “
Ransom was a 35-year old social worker. He was the only Black member of the jury who spent more than four hours in Brunswick, Georgia to hear the hate crime case in U.S. District Court.
Travis McMichael and his father Greg McMichael were armed and chased Arbery, a Black man aged 25 years old, in their neighborhood on February 23, 2020. William Bryan joined the pursuit in his pickup truck and captured cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting at Arbery with a shotgun.
Ransom lives three hours away from the coast of Glynn County, where Arbery was killed and trial held. He said that he was shocked at the graphic video. However, he claimed that he didn’t pay much attention prior to the trial as he was dealing with the loss of his grandmother.
Federal prosecutors led the jury through approximately two dozen racist social media posts by Travis McMichal and Bryan during the trial. Bryan also allegedly sent racist messages about Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Ransom stated that he wasn’t shocked by the racist slurs used by the men.
He said that he had experienced racism at different levels.
Ransom claimed that he wept when Travis McMichael showed him a video of a young Black boy dancing. After the verdicts were read, Ransom was asked to stand and confirm the verdicts.
Ransom stated that he was disturbed at the indifference shown Arbery by McMichaels as he died in the street. He was also stunned that Bryan joined them in pursuit of a Black man who Bryan later said he had never seen before.
Ransom stated, “Just seeing that there was so much hatred, not just for Ahmaud but also for other Black people,” “
No defendant testified in the hate crime trial. Ransom stated that he observed each defendant closely throughout the trial to look for signs of remorse.
Ransom stated that after the trial was over, and the jury was ready to start deliberations on the case, Ransom informed them that the other members quickly elected Ransom to be their foreman.
He said that no one had ever really asked why.
He stated that deliberations were businesslike. Nobody disagreed with Bryan’s innocence. The evidence proved that Arbery was killed and chased because he was Black, which was a necessary finding to convict the defendants for hate crimes.
The hate crime convictions were returned by the jury just three months after Bryan and McMichaels were found guilty of Arbery’s murder. Bryan was sentenced to life imprisonment in the murder case with no parole possibility for McMichaels.
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Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones stated to “CBS Mornings ” that she had rejected the idea for a plea deal as she wanted the men to be tried for hate crimes.
Cooper-Jones stated that federal charges were just as important to him as state charges. He believes that they should be tried for them.
Marcus Arbery, his father, stated outside the courthouse that Ahmaud was a child you cannot replace. “
