First modification:
A Georgia judge on Friday sentenced Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan to life imprisonment for murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a young African American, when he was running through a neighborhood in the American city of Brunswick. The case caused a wave of protests and outrage over racism in the US judicial system.
“He had dark skin that shone in the sunlight like gold. He had curly hair (…) Ahmaud had a wide nose and the color of his eyes was full of melanin,” Ahmaud Arbery’s sister said in front of him. Glynn County Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley.
And he sentenced: “These are the qualities that made these men assume that Ahmaud was a dangerous criminal. For me, those qualities reflected a young man full of life and energy who resembled me and the people I love.”
Some time later, the judge sentenced Travis McMichael and his father Gregory McMichael to life sentences without being eligible for parole for the murder of the young African-American while running through their neighborhood in 2020. For his part, the McMichael’s neighbor, William ” Roddie “Bryan also sentenced him to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years in prison.
In addition, Walmsley claimed that the men had “assumed the worst” about Arbery, “they had chased and shot him, and killed him because the people here in this room took the law into their own hands.”
He added: “When I thought about this, I thought about it from many different angles. I kept coming back to the terror that must have been in the mind of the young man running through Satilla Shores. ”
In November, a jury found the McMichaels guilty of murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony.
Now his lawyers have said they will appeal the decision. But in addition, the men will face next month, in US District Court, on federal hate crime charges accused of violating Arbery’s civil rights by attacking him because of his “race and color.” .
A heartfelt sentencing hearing
“When I close my eyes, I see his execution in my mind, over and over again. I’m going to watch this for the rest of my life,” said Marcus Arbery, the young man’s father.
In addition, the family claimed in court that it was racial stereotypes that led to the murder of their son when he was running in the neighborhood where he grew up and lived much of his life.
“Ahmaud never said a word to them, he never threatened them, he just wanted to be left alone,” said Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother.
For their part, defense attorneys claimed that none of the three men intended to kill Arbery. Attorney Bryan requested leniency as he was the only one of the three who was unarmed at the time of the persecution.
However, prosecutor Linda Dunikoski had shown that everyone deserved life imprisonment for showing “lack of empathy for the trapped and terrified Ahmaud Arbery.”
A video: the clue that revealed what happened on February 23, 2020
Months after the murder, a video was leaked of the day the three men chased after him and shot Arbery. In this it was seen the moment in which the young man was reached and cornered by the McMichael. The moment when he was shot with a shotgun was also recorded.
Thanks to the video, the crime that had gone unnoticed was passed to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which shortly afterwards ordered the arrest of the three men.
But it also sparked a wave of protests across the country against racism in the criminal justice system, as none of the men had been arrested so far.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
.