Gregory and Travis McMichael, Ahmaud Arbery’s killers, have been sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole for the murder of a black jogger.
The three men convicted in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced to life in prison on Friday. Travis McMichael, 35, and his father, Gregory McMichael, 66, were both given life sentences with no chance of release.
Before becoming eligible for parole, their next-door neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, will have to spend 30 years of his life sentence. The three White men were found guilty in November of murdering Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, in Georgia in February 2020.
Judge Timothy Walmsley of the Superior Court highlighted how the McMichaels pursued Arbery when Gregory McMichael noticed him racing down the street and exclaimed, “Let’s go.” “Ahmaud Arbery was then sought down and shot, and he was slain because individuals in this courtroom took the law into their own hands,” the judge explained.
Arbery was “gunned down” after a five-minute chase, according to Walmsley. To give an idea of the length of time, the judge sat in quiet for one minute. The shooting was caught on smartphone footage, which was shown to the jury during the trial.
“This was a murder,” Walmsley said before delivering the prosecutors’ recommendations for punishment. “It was callous, and it occurred — as far as the court is concerned based upon the evidence — because confrontation was being sought.”
Arbery’s family testified that the accused should be sentenced to the greatest penalty permitted.
“They each have no remorse and do not deserve any leniency,” Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother, told Walmsley.point 114 | “This wasn’t a case of mistaken identity or mistaken fact.point 175 | They chose to target my son because they didn’t want him in their community.point 244 |
They chose to treat him differently than other people who frequently visited their community, and when they couldn’t sufficiently scare him or intimidate him, they killed him.point 155 | ”point 162 | 1
When the sentences were read, Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery, Arbery’s father, were seen crying in the courtroom.