Ahmaud Arbery’s killers sentenced to life in prison, two with no chance of parole

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The three White men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery nearly two years ago were sentenced Friday to life in prison, two of them without the possibility of parole.

Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan all faced at least life in prison for the killing of Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man. They chased and cornered Arbery with their pickup trucks in suburban Satilla Shores near Brunswick, Ga. The five-minute pursuit ended with Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery, who was unarmed.

Prosecutors sought to remove the possibility of parole for the McMichaels, but not for Bryan, and the judge agreed. Members of Arbery’s family took the stand earlier Friday to tearfully urge the maximum penalty for all involved.

“Ahmaud never said a word to them,” Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said in court Friday. “He never threatened them. He just wanted to be left alone. They were fully committed to the crimes — let them be fully committed for the consequences.”

Activists and civil rights leaders praised the men’s convictions in November as hard-won justice in the case, which saw no arrests until more than two months after Arbery’s death. The three men were charged only after a cellphone video of the event went viral, thrusting the killing into the national spotlight and leaving many outraged at a justice system that they said showed little care for Black lives.

Georgia law prescribes a minimum sentence of life in prison for murder, leaving the question of parole up to presiding judge Timothy Walmsley. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. All three men were convicted of felony murder, or committing felonies that caused Arbery’s death; Travis McMichael, now 35, was also convicted of malice murder, which requires intent to kill, but faces the same punishment as his 66-year-old father and 52-year-old Bryan.

In Georgia, those serving life sentences for serious violent crimes such as murder are not considered for parole until they have served 30 years.

Lead prosecutor Linda Dunikoski said Friday that the McMichaels should not be able to seek parole because they showed “thoughtlessness” and a “demonstrated pattern of vigilantism,” arming up and pursuing dangerous confrontations rather than calling the authorities first.

Bob Rubin, a lawyer for Travis McMichael, argued that his client should be given the chance to prove himself worthy of release some decades later. He highlighted the younger McMichael’s young son and past service in the Coast Guard.

“The urge to seek vengeance is strong and understandable in the family,” Rubin said. “Lord knows, if I was in their position, I would be seeking the same thing. But vengeance is not the foundation of our sentencing, in our criminal justice system. Redemption is.”

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