Three white men have been sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a young African American whom They “hunted” and killed with a shotgun while running in 2020 through a neighborhood in the city of Brunswick, Georgia. His case sparked a wave of outrage and protests.
Gregory McMichael, 66; his son Travis, 35, and his neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, they could still be sentenced to capital punishment of being found guilty in a new trial that they must face, this time in federal court, to answer for hate crimes charges for killing Arbery because he was black.
Glynn County Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley imposed on the McMichaels the sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, while Bryan was given the same sentence but with the opportunity to go free on parole once he has served at least 30 years of the sentence.
“Ahmaud Arbery He went for a run and ended up running for his life“, said the magistrate, who observed a minute of silence to commemorate the” cruel “murder of the young man.
A majority white jury
The McMichaels and Bryans were found guilty on November 24 of last year, after the jury, made up of eleven whites and a single African American, deliberated for ten hours, in a trial in which thirty witnesses appeared to testify over almost two weeks.
During the sentencing hearing this Friday, the victim’s parents implored the judge that those guilty of the murder of their son remain the rest of their lives in prison. “When I close my eyes, I see his execution in my mind, over and over again. I am going to watch this for the rest of my life,” said Marcus Arbery, the young man’s father.
“Ahmaud never said a word to them, never threatened them, he just wanted to be left alone. (The killers) were completely committed to their crimes. That they commit themselves completely with the consequences “, asked for his part Wanda Cooper-Jones, the mother of Arbery, visibly shocked.
Outside Glynn’s courthouse, a group of people, mostly African American, celebrated the sentence in the middle of a strong police deployment.
The video of death
Arbery’s death, which occurred on February 23, 2020, went unnoticed for several months, until early May A video that Bryan recorded with his cell phone was leaked on the internet and that it showed when the young man was intercepted by the McMichaels, who, after chasing him and cornering him in their truck, shot him at point-blank range with a shotgun.
The investigation then passed into the hands of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), which in just days ordered the arrest of the three men, one of which -Gregory McMichael- he was a former glynn county cop and investigator of the Office of the Public Prosecutor in the locality.
Before rendering its verdict, the jury asked the judge to show the video of the death again, which became a key piece of evidence during the trial, and also requested to hear the call to the emergency number 911 that the defendants made.
During the trial, the defense argued that the defendants were trying to make a citizen arrest on suspicion that the young man was a thief, since on numerous occasions they claim that they had seen him frequenting a house under construction in the Satilla Shores neighborhood. Travis McMichael testified that shot Arbery in self defense after he allegedly attacked him with his fists when confronting him.
The state attorney’s office, however, proved that the 25-year-old never committed any crime and that he was killed by the McMichaels and Bryan “not because he was a threat to them, but because he didn’t stop to talk to them.”
Presenting her final arguments, prosecutor Linda Dunikoski said that for the citizen’s arrest to have been legal, the person attempting to execute him must have witnessed a crime, something that never happened.
New law
Arbery’s death prompted the Georgia Legislature to pass a measure criminalizing hate crimes in the state, a bipartisan initiative that was signed into law by the Governor, Republican Brian Kemp, who he celebrated it as a “sign of progress.”
Although the new law could not be applied in this trial, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office he did file the charges at the retrial that the three inmates will have to face as of February 7, when the jury selection is scheduled to begin.
Arbery’s case joined several others that sparked a wave of outrage and protests in the summer of 2020, including that of young African-American Rayshard Brooks, who died after being shot by a police officer white in Atlanta, and that of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who died after being arrested by a white officer.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
