A white man and his father both serving life in prison for 25-year-old black man Ahmaud Arbery’s February 2020 murder have been given federal life sentences for the hate crime of interfering with his rights, while their former neighbor already imprisoned for life received 35 years, according to CNN.
Travis McMichael was also sentenced on Monday to 20 years and 10 years for the federal crimes of attempted kidnapping and illegal weapons use, and his father Gregory McMichael respectively received 20- and 7-year sentences for those crimes, the outlet reported. William Bryan received 35 years imprisonment later the same day following federal hate crime and attempted kidnapping convictions, according to CBS News.
The McMichaels chased Arbery while armed in a pickup truck, with the younger McMichael shooting Arbery as Bryan filmed with his cellphone, according to NPR. U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood, who administered Monday’s sentences, said Travis McMichael’s trial had been “fair,” the outlet reported. (RELATED: Deputy Resigns After Calling Arbery A ‘Criminal’ Who ‘Got The Death Penalty’)
BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA – JANUARY 07: Greg McMichael, center, listens to his attorney Franklin Hogue during the sentencing of he and his son Travis McMichael, and a neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan in the Glynn County Courthouse, on January 7, 2022 in Brunswick, Georgia. Stephen B. Morton-Pool/Getty Images
A state trial convicted McMichaels and Bryan of murdering Arbery in November 2021.
At the time, President Joe Biden called the murder “a devastating reminder of how far we have to go in the fight for racial justice in this country,” adding, “Nothing can bring Mr. Arbery back to his family and to his community, but the verdict ensures that those who committed this horrible crime will be punished.”
Travis McMichael’s attorney Amy Lee Copeland declined the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment, while Gregory McMichael’s attorney did not immediately respond.
This story has been updated with information about William Bryan’s sentencing.
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