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BRUNSWICK — A Trial Officials Monday sentenced a white father and son to life in prison and their neighbor to 35 years. A Black man jogging in his suburban Georgia neighborhood in 2020 was shot dead in a case demonstrating racist violence and racist violence. Climb. American vigilance.
Travis McMichael, 36, former U.S. Coast Guard mechanic; his father, Gregory McMichael, 66, former Glynn County police officer who later worked for the district attorney's office; Brian, a mechanic, was convicted in the coastal city of Brunswick.
The three were convicted of murder in a state trial last November and are serving life sentences, although they were given the possibility of parole at It was just Brian. Then, in February, all three were found guilty of federal charges of violating civil rights by attacking Arbery for his race and attempted kidnapping, and McMichaels was also found guilty of firearms charges.
The two were convicted on federal charges at a separate hearing Monday by U.S. District Judge Lisa Godby Wood. When first relaying young McMichael's sentencing, Wood said a cell phone video of him shooting the 25-year-old Arbery with a shotgun at close range was widely viewed and burned into her memory.
"You acted because of the color of Mr. Arbery's skin," the judge told McMichael.
He testified before he was sentenced and said he prayed for "the peace of God" for Arbery's family.
"Words cannot describe the loss you have endured," he said, with several of Arbery's relatives in tears in a crowded courtroom, including civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. wiped. “I am sure my words mean little to you, but I want to assure you that I never wanted this to happen. They did not.”
He apologized to his son, who declined the opportunity to testify, and to his wife, who began to sob, but not to Arbery's family.
The judge said Bryan deserved a shorter sentence than McMichaels because he did not bring a gun in pursuit. says as follows:
"The Three Demons"
Marcus He Arbery, father of the murdered man, said in court at his first hearing: He mentioned Travis McMichael, adding, "You hate black people."
"I had a hard time realizing that a father could actually accompany him to take his son's life," Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told Gregory Mack. said at a second hearing seeking life imprisonment for Michael.
Arbery's case is his one in a string of black killings in recent years that have brought attention to issues of racism in the U.S. criminal justice system and law enforcement. It also highlighted the wider issue of gun violence in the United States.
On the afternoon of February 2020, when Mr. and Mrs. McMichaels decided to pick up guns, Arbery, an avid jogger and fitness enthusiast, walked into a green field near Brunswick. It ran through the affluent, mostly white Satira Shores district. He jumps in a pickup truck and gives chase. Their neighbor Brian joined the chase in his own pickup truck and pulled out his cell phone to record Travis McMichael firing a shotgun at Arbery at close range. Arbery said he didn't have anything other than his running clothes and sneakers.
The video was released months later, sparking anti-racism protests in many US cities. The three men were not arrested after local prosecutors concluded the killings were justified.
Mr. and Mrs. McMichael spoke of a series of neighborhood break-ins and believed that Arbery was considered suspicious.
Three were convicted in state court of murder, aggravated assault, wrongful imprisonment, and criminal intent to commit a felony, and the jury dismissed the self-defense claim. . they appealed.
Both his McMichaels attempted to be moved from the state prison system to federal prisons, which were deemed safer. Wood said the rules require them to return to the state prison system, where they are already serving life sentences. Copeland said he had received death threats.
"This case involves vigilante justice concerns, at least in part," she said in court. Told. "I find it ironic, Judge, to express my concern that my client faces vigilante justice."
(Reporting by Rich McKay, Brunswick, Georgia) additional reporting by Jonathan Allen, New York; editing by Will Dunham and Donna Bryson)