Joe Biden: Guilty Verdicts in Ahmaud Arbery Case ‘Not Enough’ in Fight for Racial Justice

President Joe Biden acknowledged the guilty verdicts for the defendants in the Ahmaud Arbery case but said it was “not enough” to ensure racial justice in the United States.

While the guilty verdicts reflect our justice system doing its job, that alone is not enough,” Biden wrote in a statement after the verdict was announced.

Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was shot and killed in Georgia while jogging by Travis McMichael, who pursued Arbery, believing he was a burglar. McMichael’s father was also charged and found guilty for joining his son by pursuing Arbery as well as a neighbor, William Bryan.

All three defendants in the trial for Arbery’s case were found guilty, despite questions from some media outlets and activists that justice would not be served in the trial from a majority white jury.

Biden described Arbery’s killing as a “devastating reminder of how far we have to go in the fight for racial justice in this country.”

He called for all Americans to commit to build a future in the United States “where no one fears violence because of the color of their skin.”

“My administration will continue to do the hard work to ensure that equal justice under law is not just a phrase emblazoned in stone above the Supreme Court, but a reality for all Americans,” he concluded.

Biden featured Arbery’s death in his 2020 presidential campaign as evidence of racial injustice in America, also speaking out on the deaths of George Floyd, Eric Garner, and Breonna Taylor, calling each case evidence of the “original sin” of slavery still having an effect in the United States.