A white man who fatally shot Armor Berry after chasing a 25-year-old black man in a Georgia neighborhood was sentenced to life imprisonment for committing a federal hate crime. I did.
Travis McMichael was sentenced by Judge Lisa God Baywood of the US District Court in the port city of Brunswick. His punishment is largely symbolic, as McMichael was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in Georgia court for the murder of Arbury earlier this year.
Wood said McMichael had a "fair trial."
"And that kind of trial that Armor Arbury didn't receive before he was shot dead wasn't lost in court," the judge said.
McMichael was one of three defendants convicted of federal hate crimes in February. His father, Greg McMichael, and his neighbor William "Rodi" Brian were scheduled for a sentencing trial late Monday.
McMichael's, after passing his home on February 23, 2020, armed with a gun and chased Arberry using a pickup truck. .. Brian took part in the chase on his truck and recorded a video of McMichael's cell phone blasting Arbury with a shotgun.
McMichael's told police he suspected Arbury was a thief. Investigators determined that he was unarmed and that he was not committing a crime. Arbury's family said they were jogging.
The murder of Arbury has become part of a greater public view of the racial injustice and murder of unarmed blacks, including George Floyd of Minneapolis and Breona Taylor of Kentucky. These two cases also resulted in the Justice Department filing federal crimes.
Wood scheduled a series of hearings on Monday, starting with Travis McMichael and deciding each defendant individually.
Greg McMichael and Brian, also white, were also convicted by a jury trial at a federal hate crime in February, violating Arbury's civil rights and for his race. After concluding that he was targeted, he faces the possibility of life imprisonment. All three men have been found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and McMichael's faces additional penalties for committing violent crimes using firearms.
A judge in the State High Court sentenced all three to life imprisonment for the murder of Arbury in January, and both McMichael denied the possibility of parole.
All three defendants remained imprisoned on the coast of Glynn County under the control of a US Marshal while awaiting a post-federal conviction in January.
They were first charged with murder in state court and convicted, and were handed over to the Georgia Correctional Bureau for life imprisonment in state prison by the protocol.
In a court filing last week, Travis and Greg McMichael said they were unsafe in the Georgia prison system, which is the subject of the U.S. Department of Justice, and instead diverted them to federal prisons. I asked the judge. Arbury's family argued that McMichael's and Brian should serve in state prisons, and that federal prisons would not be so strict. Arbury's parents strongly opposed when both McMichael's sought a judicial deal, including a request to transfer them to federal prison, prior to the federal trial. The judge refused the judicial transaction.
A federal judge does not have the authority to order the state to abandon the legal detention of prisoners to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said Ed, a lawyer in Augusta and a former U.S. lawyer in southern Georgia. -Turber said. .. He said the judge could request a state correctional agency to hand over the defendant to a federal prison.
More than two months have passed since Arbury's death before he was prosecuted. McMichael's and Brian were arrested only after a graphic video of the shooting was leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police.
At the Hate Crimes Trial in February, prosecutors said about 20 text messages and social media that Travis McMichael and Brian used racist slurs to make derogatory comments. By showing the post to the prosecutor, they strengthened their lawsuit that the killing of Arbury was motivated by racism. About black people. A woman who testified that she heard her angry wrath from Greg McMichael in 2015 said: "
Three defendant lawyers claimed that McMichael's and Brian did not track Arbury because of race, but took seriously allegations that Arbury had committed a crime in the neighborhood. .
