White father and son get life sentences in hate crime killing of black US jogger Ahmaud Arbery
- Travis and Greg McMichael, along with a neighbour, armed themselves and chased down the victim after he ran past their home in February 2020
- The killing became part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice and killings of unarmed black people including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor
The white father and son convicted of murder in Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting after they chased the 25-year-old black man through a Georgia neighbourhood were sentenced on Monday to life in prison for committing a federal hate crime.
US District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood handed down the sentences against Travis McMichael, 36, and his father, Greg McMichael, 66, reiterating the gravity of the February 2020 killing that shattered their Brunswick community and became part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice.
William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, who recorded cellphone video of the slaying, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
“A young man is dead. Ahmaud Arbery will be forever 25. And what happened a jury found happened because he’s black,” Wood said.
The McMichaels were previously sentenced to life without parole in state court for Arbery’s murder and had asked the judge to divert them to a federal prison to serve their sentences, saying they were worried about their safety in the state prison system. Wood declined their request.
