Three men got life sentences in prison in the United States on Friday (January 7) for the February 2020 killing of 25-year-old African-American jogger Ahmaud Arbery. It is a case that heightened racial tensions in the country.
Travis McMichael, 35, his father, Gregory McMichael, 66, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, were found guilty of murdering Arbery after pursuing him down in their pickup trucks. In November, the court found them guilty of several counts of murder, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment.
A Georgia judge sentenced them to life in prison, with two of them having no possibility of parole. Murder in Georgia is punishable by a mandatory life sentence unless prosecutors seek the death penalty.
The trial sparked because of a graphic video showing armed men trailing Arbery as he raced through their neighborhood. They were suspecting him of being a burglar despite the lack of evidence.
Arbery tries to dodge them in the video. Bryan captured it before Travis McMichael confronts him and shoots him with a shotgun.
Local law enforcement initially kept the video hidden. It took several months for the arrest of McMichaels and Bryan. It came after the clip circulated online, causing nationwide outrage.
The judge agreed with prosecutors and Arbery’s relatives that the three white males had “assumed the worst” about Arbery. He was “hunted down and shot, and he was killed because individuals here in this courtroom took the law into their own hands.”
Arbery’s family had previously told the court that they believed racial stereotyping was to blame for the death. The ardent jogger grew up and still resided across the highway from the Satilla Shores neighborhood where he died.
Mother of Ahmaud Arbery reacts to the verdict
Ahmaud Arbery’s mother praised the sentence. Thereby, saying she never lost hope that justice would be served.
“I knew that we would come out with a victory. I never doubted it and I knew that today would come,” Wanda Cooper-Jones said. It was at a press conference outside of the courtroom.
