The three white men convicted of killing 25-year-old Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery because of his race are due back in the Brunswick federal courthouse on today for sentencing, reported GPB/NPR's Benjamin Payne.
The three white men who murdered 25-year-old Black
jogger Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 outside Brunswick are scheduled to be sentenced
Monday for their federal hate crime convictions.
Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael, and
neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan are already serving life sentences, after they
were found guilty in a separate state trial last year of murdering Arbery as he
was running through the Satilla Shores neighborhood in Glynn County.
The three men could each face an additional life
sentence, after a federal jury in February found that they killed Arbery
because of his race. They were also found guilty of attempting to kidnap
Arbery. Additionally, the McMichaels were convicted on firearms charges.
U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood will hand down
their sentences in separate hearings at the Brunswick federal courthouse,
beginning with Travis McMichael at 10 a.m., then Greg McMichael at 1 p.m., and
Bryan at 3 p.m.
Before the hate crimes trial began, Wood rejected
plea deals that prosecutors offered to the McMichaels, which would have seen
them serve time first in federal prison, which is generally seen as preferable
to Georgia's state prisons.
Brunswick-based attorney Page Pate, who is not
involved with the case but has practiced federal law for more than 25 years,
told GPB News that the terms of those proposed plea deals were highly unusual.
“I cannot think of a single time where I've even had
discussions about having the person's federal time basically take priority over
state time, when there's been a prior state conviction,” Pate said. “That
almost never happens in federal court.”
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