Man gets life sentence for U.S. hate crimes in Ahmaud Arbery murder
The Hindu
Arbery's case is one in a series of killings of Black people in recent years that have drawn attention to the issue of racism in the U.S. criminal justice system and law enforcement
A judge sentenced Travis McMichael to life in prison on Monday for committing federal hate crimes in the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man shot while jogging through a mostly white Georgia neighbourhood in a case that probed issues of racist violence and vigilantism in America.
U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood sentenced McMichael, a 36-year-old white former U.S. Coast Guard mechanic, in the coastal city of Brunswick. McMichael was convicted of murder in an earlier trial.
McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael, 66, and their neighbour William "Roddie" Bryan, 52, were found guilty in February of violating Arbery's civil rights by attacking him because of his race and of attempted kidnapping. Gregory McMichael and Bryan are scheduled to be sentenced later in the day.
At the first hearing, Marcus Arbery, the slain man's father, asked the judge to sentence the younger McMichael to serve the maximum in state prison on the federal charges.
"These three devils have broken my heart into pieces that cannot be found or repaired," Marcus Arbery told the court. "You hate Black people."
Travis McMichael declined his chance to testify on Monday, but his lawyer said a Georgia state prison was too dangerous for him and that he had received death threats.
The three men were convicted in February of the hate crime of violating Arbery's civil rights by attacking him because of his race and of attempted kidnapping.
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