A Georgia judge will announce the criminal punishment for Greg and Travis McMichael, and William Bryan, the three white men convicted in November of hunting down and murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, as he jogged through a neighborhood. Georgia residential on February 23, 2020.
The murder charge carries a mandatory life sentence under Georgia law, unless prosecutors had requested the death penalty, an option they ruled out.
From left to right, the three convicted of the murdered Ahmaud Arbery: Travis McMichael, William Bryan and Gregory McMichael. AP
The family of the murdered young man asked the judge to impose the maximum penalty, claiming that those convicted must assume their responsibility for the acts committed.
His father, Marcus Arbery, reminded the judge how the death of his son has destroyed his family.
"The defendants must think about what they did and what they took from us," he said.
"They skewed his life (...) in broad daylight.
I would have changed my life for hers
," he said in a heavy voice.
His mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said the convictions will help close this chapter, stressing: "These men decided to lie, to attack my son. They have no remorse and do not deserve any mercy."
"
This was not a case of identity confusion or mistakes. They decided to go against my son
because they did not want him in their community," he added.
Jasmine Arbery, burst into tears when she remembered her brother's features, "dark skin that glowed in the sun, curly hair, dark eyes, tall, athletic. He liked to jog and be outdoors."
But, in his opinion, "these are the qualities that made these individuals think it was dangerous."
"Ahmaud had a future that was taken from him with violence," he said.
It remains to be seen whether State Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley will grant those convicted
a chance to qualify for parole
after serving at least 30 years of sentence.
Travis McMichael would be the main beneficiary of getting a life sentence with the possibility of eligible for parole because, at 35, he is the youngest of the three, said Page Pate, an Atlanta lawyer who is not involved in the case.
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"For the older two it is effectively a life sentence,"
he added.
Greg McMichael (Travis's father) recently turned 66 and Bryan is 52 years old.
All three were also convicted of aggravated assault, illegal detention and attempted illegal detention.
The maximum prison terms for these charges range from five to 20 years.
The judge is likely to allow those additional
sentences to run in conjunction with the life sentences for murder.
Father and son testified at trial that they
suspected Arbery was a fleeing thief
, so they decided to take their weapons and get into a truck to chase him, even though there was no report of theft and the young black man was simply jogging down the street. , doing sports and of course without carrying weapons.
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Bryan, his neighbor, joined the chase when he saw them pass in front of his house and
recorded a video
with his cell phone of the moment in which Travis McMichael shot Arbery, while he punched and held on to the weapon to defend himself.
The murder went virtually unnoticed
until two months later, when the video leaked online and sparked a national outcry.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case and detained the three men within days, after weeks of inaction by state and local authorities.
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At the time of his death, Arbery had recently enrolled in technical school and
was preparing to become an electrician to work with his uncles
.
Defense attorneys have said they plan to appeal the convictions.
They have 30 days after sentencing to present them.
The McMichaels and Bryans face a second trial next month, this time in district court on federal hate crime charges.
The judge has set the jury selection for February 7.
Prosecutors will argue that the three men violated Arbery's civil rights and attacked him for being black.
