The three men shot dead Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man. Two of them have no parole option.
Wanda Cooper-Jones, Ahmaud Arbery’s mother, speaks to supporters after the sentence is pronounced, January 7, 2022.
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An American judge sentenced Travis McMichael (35), his father Gregory McMichael (66) and their neighbor William Bryan (52) to life imprisonment. The three men had chased 25-year-old black Ahmaud Arbery while jogging in a vehicle in Brunswick, a small town in Georgia, and later shot him.
Travis and Gregory McMichael will have to stay in prison for the rest of their lives. William Bryan, who filmed the crime on his mobile phone and cooperated with the authorities during the investigation, will be able to apply for parole after a maximum of 30 years in prison, i.e. at the age of 83.
The three white men said they were acting out of self-defense. However, this was rejected by a jury with a guilty verdict in November 2021. Gunman Travis McMichael was convicted of murder. Gregory McMichael and William Bryan have been found guilty of aggravated assault and manslaughter, among others. In Georgia, murder and various crimes that correspond to manslaughter under German and Swiss law are subject to the same penalties.
Video sparked a wave of indignation
Bryan’s video found its way into the public eye on February 23, 2020, about two months after the crime, sparking a wave of indignation. Only then was the three men arrested. Previously, a prosecutor was in an initial assessment came to the conclusion that that the men were not at fault.
He was referring to a law from 1863, a time when African Americans were actually still being lynched in the United States. He also asserted the right to self-defense of the three white men. In Bryan’s video it can be clearly seen that Arbery attacked the shooter Travis McMichael: “Arbery takes the gun. According to Georgia law, McMichael was allowed to use lethal force to protect himself. “
Now the jury has come to a completely different conclusion. Travis McMichael was even convicted of “malicious murder”. The sentence had to adapt to the guilty verdict.
The convicts can contest the decision. The three men are already threatened with another trial: They have to defend themselves before a jury for the same crime against charges of hate crimes and attempted kidnappings. In this process, too, they could be sentenced to life imprisonment.