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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A white father and his son were Monday sentenced to life in prison for committing federal hate crime.
The two men were earlier convicted of murder in the deadly shooting of Ahmaud Arbery following a chase through a Georgia neighborhood.
A U.S.
District Court judge sentenced Travis McMichael and his father Greg McMichael,
66, in Brunswick to spend the rest of their lives in prison, The Associated
Press reports. The two convicts were
earlier sentenced to life imprisonment without parole over Arbery’s murder in a
state court.
federal jury convicted Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan of violating Arbery's civil rights
In February, a federal jury convicted Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan of violating Archery’s civil rights, and concluded they targeted him because he was Black, according to The Associated Press. The three persons were found guilty of attempted kidnapping, but Greg McMichael and Travis McMichael were found guilty of using guns in the commission of a violent crime.
The father
and son armed themselves with guns and used a pickup truck to chase 25-year-old
Arbery after he ran past their home on February 23, 2020. Bryan joined the
pursuit in his own truck and made a cellphone recording of Travis McMichael
shooting Arbery with a shotgun.
The father
and son told police they suspected Arbery was a burglar, an allegation
dismissed by officials who determined the Black man was unarmed and had
committed no crimes.
On Monday
U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood said Travis 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, according to The Associated Press.
White father and son denied any chance of parole in Black man's death
Bryan’s sentencing hearing is scheduled later Monday. A state Superior Court judge sentenced all three men to life imprisonment in January for Archery’s murder. The McMichaels were denied any chance of parole.
All three
defendants have been in jail in coastal Glynn County in the custody of U.S.
marshals.
The judge
declined Travis and Greg McMichael’s request to serve their sentence in a
federal prison after the convicts cited violence in the state prison.