WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- The mother of black man Ahmaud Arbery in the U.S. state of Georgia said Thursday she was "really thankful" this Thanksgiving Day after the three white men responsible for the slaying of her son were convicted of murder a day earlier.
"Today is Thanksgiving and I'm really, really thankful. My family and I are really, really thankful for the verdict we got yesterday," Wanda Cooper-Jones told ABC News' Whit Johnson in an interview Thursday on "Good Morning America."
"We finally got justice for Ahmaud," she added.
While jogging in a Brunswick, Georgia neighborhood in February 2020, Arbery, then 25, was chased and killed by three white residents suspecting him of committing a series of break-ins, in what has become one of the most watched murder cases on a par with that of Minneapolis black man George Floyd, which happened three months later.
On Wednesday, Travis McMichael, who fatally shot Arbery, was convicted by a jury in Glynn County on all nine charges, including malice murder and four counts of felony murder.
His father, Gregory McMichael, was acquitted only on malice murder but was convicted on all other charges, including four counts of felony murder.
The sentencing date has not been set for the three convicted men, who faced up to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Their attorneys said they would appeal the verdict.
Their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, who recorded the incident on a cellphone, was found guilty on six charges, including three counts of felony murder.
Weeping in relief while auditing the announcement of the verdict in the courtroom, Cooper-Jones said she was not surprised by the verdict, which came after 11 hours of deliberations by the 12-member jury spanning two days.
"There's just really no words to really explain all the emotions that I was going through at that time," she said. Enditem
