Two of the three white males who pursued and murdered Ahmaud Arbery while jogging in a Georgia neighborhood in early 2020 were sentenced to life in prison for federal hate crimes on Monday. Travis McMichael, the man who fatally shot Arbery, and his father, Greg McMichael, were both sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for their involvement in the homicide at a state trial in Georgia.
Months after the McMichaels and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, were sentenced to life in prison for murder in state court, all three men convicted in Arbery’s death faced federal hate crimes committed in the murderous chase of the 25-year-old Black man on Monday. Bryan’s sentence is set for later in the day on Monday.
Travis McMichael, William “Roddie” Bryan, and Gregory McMichael are the members of the band.
Travis McMichael, William “Roddie” Bryan, and Gregory McMichael stand trial in Brunswick, Georgia, from left. All three were found guilty of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder.
Judge Lisa Godbey Wood of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia set back-to-back hearings to sentence each of the defendants, beginning with Travis McMichael, who discharged a shotgun at Arbery following a street pursuit instigated by his father and joined by Bryan.
Arbery’s death on February 23, 2020, became part of a bigger national debate over racial injustice and the deaths of unarmed Black individuals like as George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. The Justice Department also filed federal charges in those two instances.
Bryan faces a potential life sentence when court hearings continue in Georgia on Monday, after a jury convicted him and the McMichaels of federal hate crimes in February, determining that they violated Arbery’s constitutional rights and targeted him because of his color. All three men were also convicted guilty of attempted abduction, and the McMichaels face extra sentences for using guns in the commission of a violent felony.
Whatever sanctions they face in federal court may end up being more symbolic than anything else. In January, a California Superior Court judge sentenced all three men to life in prison for Arbery’s murder, with neither McMichael eligible for parole.
Following their federal convictions in January, the three defendants have remained in the custody of U.S. marshals in coastal Glynn County while awaiting sentence.
Because they were prosecuted and convicted of murder in a state court, they would be sent to the Georgia Department of Corrections to spend their life sentences in a state prison.
Both Travis and Greg McMichael requested the judge last week to redirect them to a federal prison, claiming they won’t be safe in a Georgia prison system under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for prisoner violence.
Arbery’s family has asked that the McMichaels and Bryan spend their terms in a state jail, claiming that a federal prison would be too harsh. When both McMichaels sought a plea agreement that included a request to transfer them to federal prison, his parents opposed vehemently before the federal trial. The plea deal was rejected by the court.
According to Ed Tarver, an Augusta lawyer and former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, a federal court lacks the jurisdiction to force the state to cede its legitimate custody of detainees to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He said that the court might request that the offenders be transferred to a federal jail from the state prisons organization.
After witnessing Arbery sprinting past their house near the port city of Brunswick on Feb. 23, 2020, the McMichaels armed themselves with pistols and hopped in a vehicle to pursue him. Bryan joined the chase with his own vehicle, thwarting Arbery’s escape. He also videotaped Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range as Arbery hurled blows and snatched the shotgun.
Travis McMichael, William “Roddie” Bryan, and Gregory McMichael are the members of the band.
Travis McMichael, William “Roddie” Bryan, and Gregory McMichael stand trial in Brunswick, Georgia, from left. All three were found guilty of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder.
The McMichaels informed police they suspected Arbery of stealing from a nearby construction site. However, officials ultimately determined that he was unarmed and had committed no crimes. Arbery’s family has consistently maintained that he was just out running.
Nonetheless, it took more than two months before any charges were brought in Arbery’s killing. The McMichaels and Bryan were only apprehended after a graphic video of the shooting was released online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation from local police.
During the February hate crimes trial, prosecutors bolstered their case that Arbery’s killing was motivated by racism by presenting the jury with roughly two dozen text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Bryan used racist slurs and made disparaging remarks about Black people. In 2015, a witness testified that she overheard Greg McMichael go on an aggressive outburst in which he shouted, “All those Blacks are nothing but problems.”
Defense counsel for the three men contended that the McMichaels and Bryan pursued Arbery not because of his ethnicity, but because of a genuine — if mistaken — fear that Arbery had committed crimes in their community.