Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu tweeted: “Life without the possibility of parole for Travis and Gregory McMichael Except William Bryan who gets Life with possibility of parole. The 3 murderous racist b******s convicted of felony murder get life imprisonment for killing Ahmaud Arbery”.
A Georgia judge sentenced Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan to life in prison on Friday for what he called the “chilling” 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery, who had been running through their mostly white neighborhood in the southern U.S. state.
The McMichaels, a father and son, will now spend the rest of their lives in prison but Judge Timothy Walmsley ruled that Bryan could seek parole after 30 years in prison, the minimum sentence allowed for murder under state law.
Walmsley said at the hearing in Glynn County Court in Brunswick that he gave the McMichaels the harshest sentence open to him in part because of their “callous” words and actions which were captured on video.
The judge said it was a “chilling, truly disturbing scene” of a frame in a cellphone video of the killing where McMichael begins to lift his shotgun at Mr Arbery while the 25-year-old is about 20 feet away.
He said Arbery was hunted down, shot and killed because individuals in the courtroom took the law into their own hands.
Previously, Mr Arbery’s family addressed the court to argue that racial stereotyping led to the killing of the avid jogger.
Defence lawyers pleaded leniency, saying not one of the three men ever intended for Mr Arbery to be killed.
In November, a jury found Gregory McMichael, 66, his son Travis McMichael, 35, and their neighbor Bryan, 52, guilty of murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony.
Lead prosecutor Linda Dunikoski had argued the two McMichaels should die in prison and only Bryan should be able to seek parole, pointing to what she called “a demonstrated pattern of vigilantism” by the McMichaels.
Jasmine Arbery addressed the court in a quavering voice to offer a poetic celebration of her brother’s blackness, which she said was mistaken for something frightening by his murderers.
She said: “He had dark skin that glistened in the sunlight like gold.
“He had curly hair; he would often like to twist it. He had a broad nose and the color of his eyes was filled with melanin.
“These are the qualities that made these men assume Ahmaud was a dangerous criminal.
“To me, those qualities reflected a young man full of life and energy who looked like me and the people I love.”
The defence lawyers have said they will appeal the convictions. Bob Rubin, who represents the younger McMichael, said life without parole should be reserved only for “the worst of the worst.”
Of Travis McMichael, Rubin said: “His goal was not to commit a crime that day or kill somebody that day. His goal was to have a family afternoon.”
None of the three convicted men used their right to address the court at the hearing.
The three also face a federal trial in February on hate-crime charges, accused in an indictment of violating Arbery’s civil rights by attacking him because of his “race and color.”