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Judge sentences men convicted of Arbery murder to life in prison

BY Caroline Vakil

The three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man chased down and killed while jogging in their Georgia neighborhood in February 2020, were all sentenced to life in prison on Friday in a dramatic courtroom sentencing — two of them without the possibility of parole.

Travis McMichael, who fatally shot Arbery and was found guilty on nine charges including malice murder, and his father Gregory McMichael were both sentenced to life without parole.

William “Roddie” Bryan, who videotaped part of the incident, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

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Judge Timothy Walmsley is pictured stating the sentence on the three men in the Ahmaud Arbery case. Before he read the sentence, he asked the courtroom to pause for one minute to show how little time lapsed between the time they chased Arbery down and killed him.

Judge Timothy Walmsley paused the courtroom for one minute as he remarked on the trial, a moment he acknowledged was theatrical but that he suggested was important to show how quickly the McMichaels and Bryan decided to chase down Arbery and kill him.

He noted it was just a fifth of the time — five minutes — that the men had chased after Arbery in a pickup. He called the incident chilling, and suggested he did not believe the McMichaels had shown remorse for the killing.

“As we understand it, [Arbery] left his home apparently to go for a run, and he ended up running for his life,” Walmsley said of the fatal shooting.

THREE WHITE MEN
TRAVIS McMICHAEL (FROM LEFT), his father, Gregory McMichael, and William “Roddie’’ Bryan face federal hate crime charges in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Georgia man who was killed while out for a run last year. (Photo courtesy of Glynn County, Georgia, Detention Center)

This article originally appeared on TheHill

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