In the last two weeks, jury panels delivered verdicts in high-profile cases related to the deaths of three Black Americans, roughly two years since they helped fuel a global movement against racial injustice.

The decisions put back into focus the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, whose violent deaths in 2020 forced America to once again grapple with issues of racial bias, systemic racism and policing.

On February 22, jurors in southern Georgia convicted Arbery’s killers, Travis and Gregory McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, of federal hate crimes. Two days later, a federal jury in St. Paul, Minnesota, found former police officers Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane violated Floyd’s civil rights when they ignored his medical needs while Derek Chauvin, a supervising officer, knelt on his neck and ultimately killed him. Continue Reading