Ahmaud Arbery's killers are set to be sentenced today on federal hate crime convictions

[Doobie Doo]

Ahmaud Arbery's killers are set to be sentenced today on federal hate crime convictions​

By Dakin Andone, CNN









Three White men found guilty of hate-crimes following the murder of Ahmaud Arbery 02:13
(CNN)The three White men who killed Ahmaud Arbery each could receive another life sentence Monday, when they are due to appear in federal court in Georgia to learn how they will be punished for convictions on hate crime charges.
Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael and their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan were found guilty in February of interference with rights -- a federal hate crime -- and attempted kidnapping in connection with the 25-year-old Black man's 2020 killing, with the jury accepting prosecutors' argument the defendants acted out of racial animus toward Arbery.

One of Ahmaud Arbery's killers fears being slain in a Georgia state prison, court document says
Travis McMichael, who fatally shot Arbery, was also found guilty of using and carrying a Remington shotgun while his father, Gregory was found guilty of using and carrying a .357 Magnum revolver.
The McMichaels and Bryan already are serving life sentences after being convicted in state court on a series of charges related to Arbery's killing, including felony murder. The crimes, months before the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, were in some ways harbingers of the nationwide protests that erupted that summer as demonstrators decried how people of color sometimes are treated by law enforcement.
For their federal convictions, the McMichaels and Bryan could face additional life sentences and steep fines. To make their case, federal prosecutors focused on how each defendant had spoken about Black people in public and in private, using inflammatory, derogatory and racist language.
Prosecutors and Arbery's family had said he was out for a jog -- a common pastime for the former high school football player -- on February 23, 2020, when the defendants chased and killed him in their neighborhood outside Brunswick, Georgia.

One of Ahmaud Arbery's killers had 16 phone calls with DA before arrest, court filings say
Defense attorneys argued the McMichaels pursued Arbery in a pickup truck through neighborhood streets to stop him for police, believing he matched the description of someone captured in footage recorded at a home under construction. Prosecutors acknowledged Arbery had entered the home in the past, but he never took anything.
The defense also argued Travis McMichael shot Arbery in self-defense as they wrestled over McMichael's shotgun. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck after seeing the McMichaels follow Arbery in their pickup as he ran; Bryan recorded video of the shooting.
Two prosecutors initially instructed Glynn County police not to make arrests, and the defendants weren't arrested for more than two months -- and only after Bryan's video of the killing surfaced, sparking the nationwide outcry.
CNN's Jason Hanna and Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.

McMichaels sentenced to life terms, William 'Roddie' Bryan gets 35 years for federal hate crime convictions in Ahmaud Arbery's killing | CNN

Gregory and Travis McMichael, the White father and son convicted in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, were sentenced Monday to life in prison for their federal convictions on interference with rights -- a hate crime -- along with attempted kidnapping and weapon use charges.

www.cnn.com

 

[3rdWorld]

They're trying to get sent to a federal prison rather than a state prison where life is apparently better

 

[Doobie Doo]

They're trying to get sent to a federal prison rather than a state prison where life is apparently better

I'd rather see them locked for life in Federal prison vs them out on the street.

 

[BiggWebb79]

 

[King Poetic]

good.. send they ass away for life and let the brothers in prison welcome them with open arms and shanks

 

[Alix217]

 

[TRUEST]

It’ll probably be another white person or nonblack that’ll end their lives.

 

[Chrishaune]

my brother, we just had a thread about this pork outchea.

 

[3rdWorld]

I'd rather see them locked for life in Federal prison vs them out on the street.

They're already doing life for the initial murder..theyre now getting sentenced for violating his civil rights. They're not gong anywhere, but in the meantime they trying to get sent to federal prison where the conditions aren't as rough as state prison.

 

[CJ]

Anyone know when the sentencing is for the two DAs mentioned in the article. Looked up Jackie Johnson but last update was that she "could" face to 5 years. Better be atleast that.

 

[Afrodroid]

Love to see it

 

[Rich Spirit]

 

[BrothaZay]

good.. send they ass away for life and let the brothers in prison welcome them with open arms and shanks

Y’all brown brothers will protect them

 

[3rdWorld]

Man who shot Ahmaud Arbery gets life sentence for hate crime​

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Ahmaud Arbery Hate Crimes​

FILE - This photo combo shows, from left to right, Travis McMichael, William "Roddie" Bryan, and Gregory McMichael during their trial at at the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga. Months after they were sentenced to life in prison for murder, the three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia neighborhood faced a second round of criminal penalties Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, for federal hate crimes committed in the deadly pursuit of the 25-year-old Black man. (Pool via AP, File)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RUSS BYNUM
Mon, August 8, 2022 at 1:21 AM·4 min read
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — The white man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery after chasing the 25-year-old Black man in a Georgia neighborhood was sentenced Monday to life in prison for committing a federal hate crime.
Travis McMichael was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood in the port city of Brunswick. His punishment is largely symbolic, as McMichael was sentenced earlier this year to life without parole in a Georgia state court for Arbery’s murder.
Wood said McMichael had received a “fair trial.”
“And it’s not lost on the court that it was the kind of trial that Ahmaud Arbery did not receive before he was shot and killed,” the judge said.
Before the sentencing, she heard from members of Arbery's family. His mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said she feels every shot that was fired at her son everyday.
“It’s so unfair, so unfair, so unfair that he was killed while he was not even committing a crime,” she said.
McMichael declined to address the court, but his attorney, Amy Copeland, said her client had no convictions before the charges for Arbery’s slaying and had served in the U.S. Coast Guard. She called for a more lenient sentence.
McMichael was one of three defendants convicted in February of federal hate crime charges. His father, Greg McMichael, and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan had sentencing hearings scheduled later Monday.
The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery after he ran past their home on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of McMichael blasting Arbery with a shotgun as Arbery threw punches and grabbed at the weapon.
The McMichaels told police they suspected Arbery was a burglar. Investigators determined he was unarmed and had committed no crimes.
Arbery's killing became part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice and killings of unarmed Black people including George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. Those two cases also resulted in the Justice Department bringing federal charges.
Wood scheduled back-to-back hearings Monday to individually sentence each of the defendants, starting with Travis McMichael, who killed Arbery with a shotgun after the street chase initiated by his father and joined by a neighbor, who are also white.
Greg McMichael and Bryan also face possible life sentences after a jury convicted them in February of federal hate crimes, concluding that they violated Arbery's civil rights and targeted him because of his race. All three men were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels face additional penalties for using firearms to commit a violent crime.
A state Superior Court judge imposed life sentences for all three men in January for Arbery's murder, with both McMichaels denied any chance of parole.
All three defendants have remained jailed in coastal Glynn County, in the custody of U.S. marshals, while awaiting sentencing after their federal convictions in January.
Because they were first charged and convicted of murder in a state court, protocol would have them turned them over to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve their life terms in a state prison.
In a court filings last week, both Travis and Greg McMichael asked the judge to instead divert them to a federal prison, saying they won’t be safe in a Georgia prison system that’s the subject of a U.S. Justice Department investigation focused on violence between inmates.
Copeland said during Monday's hearing for Travis McMichael that her client has received hundreds of threats that he will be killed as soon as he arrives at state prison and that his photo has been circulated there on illegal phones.
“I am concerned your honor that my client effectively faces a back door death penalty," she said, adding that “retribution and revenge” were not sentencing factors, even for a defendant who is “publicly reviled.”
Arbery’s family insisted that Travis McMichael serve his sentence in a state prison. His father, Marcus Arbery Sr., said Travis McMichael had shown his son no mercy and deserved to “rot in state prison.”
Wood said she didn't have the authority to order the state to relinquish custody of Travis McMichael to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, but also wasn't inclined to do so in his case.
During the February hate crimes trial, prosecutors fortified their case that Arbery's killing was motivated by racism by showing the jury roughly two dozen text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Bryan used racist slurs and made disparaging comments about Black people.
Defense attorneys for the three men argued the McMichaels and Bryan didn’t pursue Arbery because of his race but acted on an earnest — though erroneous — suspicion that Arbery had committed crimes in their neighborhood.