Father and son die for hate crime in the killing of Armor Berry

The three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery as he jogged through his Georgia neighborhood in early 2020 were sentenced to life in prison Monday for federal hate crimes. Michael and his father, Greg McMichael, were sentenced to life in prison without parole in a state trial in Georgia for their involvement in the murder.

It has been several years since McMichaels and his neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, were each sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in state court, . A month later, all three of him were convicted of Arbery's murder. His second criminal sentence Monday for federal hate crimes committed in the deadly pursuit of a 25-year-old black man. Brian's verdict is set for Monday.

U.S. District Judge Lisa Godby Wood decided to sentence each defendant individually, starting with Travis McMichael, who fired the shotgun. We scheduled a series of public hearings. at Arbury after a street chase started by his father and joined by Brian.

The murder of Arbery on February 23, 2020 is a combination of racial injustice and the killing of unarmed black people, including George Floyd, in Minneapolis and Breona. became part of a larger national calculation of Kentucky Taylor. Those two of her cases also resulted in the Department of Justice filing charges with the federal government.

When court hearings resumed in Georgia on Monday, a jury found the McMichaels in February guilty of a federal hate crime, violating Arbery's civil rights,targeted him because of his raceAll three were found guilty of attempted kidnapping, while Mr. and Mrs. McMichael were accused of committing violent crimes using firearms. face additional penalties.

Their punishment in federal court was ultimately It could prove to be iconic. A state high court judge sentenced all three of his men to life in prison in January for Arbery's murder.

All three defendants were imprisoned in coastal Glynn County under the control of the U.S. Marshals while awaiting sentencing after federal convictions in January. stay.

They were first charged with murder in a state court and convicted, so the protocol required the Georgia State Correctional Service to serve life imprisonment. It was to be handed over to the station. in state prison.

In court filings last week, Travis and Greg McMichael asked a judge to convert them to federal prisons instead, saying they were not safe in Georgia's prison system, which is subject to the U.S. Department of Justice. I said no. A study focused on violence among inmates.

Arbery's family argued that Mr. and Mrs. McMichael and Brian should serve time in state prison, and that federal prison was less harsh. When he sought a plea bargain that included a request to transfer the man to federal prison, his parents vehemently opposed it before the federal trial. The judge dismissed the plea bargain.

An Augusta state attorney and former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, he said, according to Ed Tarver, that federal judges should waive lawful custody of inmates to the Federal Prison Service. It has no authority to order the states to do so. He said a judge could require the state Department of Corrections to extradite a defendant to federal prison. After spotting Arbery running in front of his house outside, he armed himself with a gun and jumped into his truck to chase Arbery. Brian joined the chase in his truck and helped out. Cut off Arbery's escape. He also recorded cell phone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range as Arbery threw a punch and grabbed a shotgun.

The McMichaels told police they suspected Arbery had robbed from a house under construction nearby. Authorities later concluded, however, that he was unarmed and did not commit a crime, and Arbery's family had claimed he was merely jogging.[159][160] , more than two months passed before he was indicted in Arbery's death. McMichaels and Brian were arrested after graphic videos of the shootings leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police. During the trial, prosecutors showed jurors around 20 text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Brian used racist slurs and made slanderous comments, suggesting that Arbery's murder had been committed. reinforced their claims that they were motivated by racism. about black people. One woman testified that she heard her angry rant from Greg McMichael in 2015.

Attorneys for the three defendants acted on a serious suspicion that Arbery had committed a crime in the neighborhood, rather than McMichaels and Brian pursuing Arbery on grounds of race.