ATLANTA — Several Georgia state lawmakers will honor Ahmaud Arbery's life this week, marking three years since his death.
State representatives Sandra Scott, Viola Davis, Kim Schofield announced they will run the 2.23-mile course at Atlanta's Beltline Westside Trail Entrance at Lee and White on Thursday. People are invited to run alongside them starting at 6 p.m.
The distance recognizes the date Arbery was jogging through the Satilla Shores neighborhood of Brunswick, near Georgia's coast on February 23, 2020. Scott was among the Georgia legislators who also introduced House Resolution 688 last year, which solidified the date as Ahmaud Arbery Day.
“Ahmaud Arbery’s murder and delayed prosecution shows how bipartisan legislation can pass to balance the scales of justice,” said Davis in a news release. “As a result of Ahmaud’s tragedy, the citizen’s arrest law was repealed and a new hate crimes law was enacted. I pray we pass legislation on police accountability soon without unjust murder being its catalyst.”
Death of Ahmaud Arbery
Arbery's death gained national attention after a video circulating on social media showed the final moments of the 25-year-old's life.
An aspiring electrician who had enrolled in South Georgia Technical College, Arbery was running through a south Georgia neighborhood when his life was brutally cut short. Authorities determined he was chased, cornered, shot and killed.
Arbery's death sparked mass protests and fueled the Black Lives Movement. Georgia's House voted unanimously for a bill to overhaul the state's citizen's arrest law. It also prompted the state to adopt a hate crimes law -- at the time it was just one of four states without one.
Three white men were eventually convicted in a state and federal trial in Arbery's death.
A jury determined Travis McMichael fired the fatal shots. His father Greg McMichael saw it happen and egged him on to do it, prosecutors claimed. Their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan, Jr. hopped in his pick-up truck to film it all.
The McMichaels were sentenced to life in prison for their federal and state convictions, Bryan was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison, to be served consecutively with his life sentence from the state trial.
