US jury finds three men guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery

All three white men charged in the death of Ahmaud Arbery have been convicted of murder in the fatal shooting in the southern US state of Georgia after chasing him in their pickup trucks.

The convictions for Travis McMichael, who shot Ahmaud Arbery, his father Gregory, and their neighbour William "Roddie" Bryan, who took part in the chase came on Wednesday after jurors deliberated for about 10 hours. 

The men face minimum sentences of life in prison. 

It is up to the judge to decide whether that comes with or without the possibility of parole.

READ MORE: US jury deliberates in Ahmaud Arbery murder case

The McMichaels grabbed guns and jumped in a pickup truck to pursue the 25-year-old Black man after seeing him running in their neighborhood outside the Georgia port city of Brunswick in February 2020.

The defendants said they suspected Arbery was a burglar who had been active in their neighbourhood and invoked a since-repealed state law that allows ordinary citizens to make arrests.

But prosecutors said they had no justification for attempting to detain Arbery and never told him they were trying to arrest him as he jogged through their Satilla Shores neighborhood on a Sunday afternoon.

A graphic video of Arbery' murder went viral on social media and added fuel to last year's protests against racial injustice sparked by the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, by a white police officer in Minnesota.

The guilty verdicts in the Georgia trial came just days after the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse in another closely watched case in the United States.

READ MORE: What makes Ahmaud Arbery’s murder trial so crucial in the US?

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