BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The man who shot and killed Ahmaud Arbery was sentenced Monday to life in prison for federal hate crimes convictions involving the 25-year-old’s slaying.
The sentence for Travis McMichael is in addition to the sentence he previously received in Glynn County Superior Court after he was convicted of Arbery’s murder: life in prison without the possibility of parole. There is also no parole in the federal prison system.
“You received a fair trial,” U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood told McMichael inside the packed courtroom. “It was the kind of trial Ahmaud Arbery did not receive.”
Members of Arbery’s family had asked Wood to give McMichael the stiffest sentence possible and make him serve his time in state prison, where conditions are tougher.
“You don’t deserve no mercy because you didn’t give him none,” Marcus Arbery, Arbery’s father, told McMichael. “They need to be sent to state prison where they’ll sit there and rot.”
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said there isn’t a day she doesn’t think about what happened to her son.
“I feel every shot that was fired,” she said through tears. “Every day I wake up and I tell myself it’s another day without my Quez.”
McMichael declined to speak when given the chance to address the court prior to sentencing.
His lawyer, Amy Lee Copeland, said the 36-year-old has received “hundreds, if not thousands,” of death threats since his arrest, and raised concerns that sending McMichael into state custody could amount to “a back door death penalty.”
“His photograph, including his bright red hair, has been circulated through the contraband cellphone network,” Copeland told the judge.
She asked Wood to send McMichael first into federal custody for a few years to allow for “a cooling off period” that might give some protection to Arbery’s killer.
“Retribution and revenge” are not part of the criminal justice system,” Copeland said. “Even for a defendant who is publicly reviled.”
Federal prosecutors opposed Copeland’s request to send McMichael into federal custody, arguing he should first serve his state sentence.
Wood said McMichael would be turned over to the Georgia Department of Corrections, noting the state of Georgia was the first to arrest, try, convict and sentence McMichael for Arbery’s murder. When that is the case, defendants who are later convicted of federal crimes begin serving their time in state court, she told those gathered in her courtroom.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson made the trip to Brunswick and sat alongside Arbery’s family members, who were relieved to learn Travis McMichael will serve time in state prison. Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Arbery’s parents noted their son’s killer expressed no remorse despite being given the chance.
“Evidently he wasn’t sorry,” Cooper-Jones said.
McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, were all convicted in November of Arbery’s murder after a lengthy state court trial. Like his son, Greg McMichael was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Bryan was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
All three men were convicted again in February following a high-profile hate crimes trial in which federal prosecutors successfully argued the men targeted Arbery because of his race as he ran through their neighborhood just outside the city of Brunswick on Feb. 23, 2020.
Arbery collapsed in the street after being shot twice at close range by Travis McMichael, who was wielding a 12-gauge shotgun.
The shooting was filmed by Bryan, who had jumped in his own pickup truck and joined the chase after seeing Arbery run by with the father and son in pursuit.
The McMichaels said they suspected Arbery was a burglar, though the avid runner was unarmed and had nothing in his hands when he was chased down by the three white men in pickup trucks. Prosecutors said he ran for about five minutes before being killed by Travis McMichael during a tussle over the shotgun in the road.
Later Monday, an apologetic Gregory McMichael, who instigated the chase was also sentenced to life in prison for federal hate crimes.
Before sentencing, the elder McMichael, his voice quavering, expressed regret to the Arbery family for what had happened.
“The loss you have endured is beyond description,” said McMichael, 66, a former Glynn County police officer. “There are no words. ... I’m sure my words mean very little to you, but I never wanted any of this to happen. There was no malice in my heart or my son’s heart that day.”
Bryan is to be sentenced later Monday.
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