The men did not get what they asked for. U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood said she had “neither the authority nor the inclination” to send the three white men to federal prison instead of the Georgia prison system, where security issues are so dire they are the subject of an investigation by the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Judge Wood said the men would go to state prison first because they were first prosecuted for murder by state authorities. At the same time, the judge imposed stiff sentences on the men for their federal crimes, which included a hate crime charge of “interference with rights” and attempted kidnapping. Travis McMichael, the 36-year-old who shot Mr Arberry with a shotgun, was sentenced to life in prison. So did Mr. McMichael’s 66-year-old father, Gregory McMichael. Their neighbor William Bryan, 52 — who joined the McMichaels in chasing Mr. Arberry, a 25-year-old black man, through their neighborhood on a Sunday afternoon in February 2020 — was sentenced to 35 years in prison. The federal sentences will run concurrently with the life sentences of each man’s state court murder conviction, for which only Mr. Bryan is considered eligible for parole — and then only after 30 years. In a statement, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said the sentences “make it clear that hate crimes have no place in our country and that the department will be relentless in our efforts to hold those who commit them accountable.” Monday’s courtroom drama — which included rare words of remorse in open court from Mr. Bryan and the elder Mr. McMichael — closed a chapter “in an excruciatingly painful journey,” as Federal Prosecutor Tara M. Lyons put it. , “for Ahmaud The Arbery family and for an entire nation that has mourned for Ahmaud along with his loved ones.” Long federal sentences were expected for the three men after they were sentenced in Judge Wood’s courtroom in February. The idea that they should be able to serve at least part of their time in federal prison, as opposed to the Georgia prison system, became an emotional flashpoint when it was first suggested in proposed plea deals for the McMichaels presented in court. in January; ultimately dismissed by Judge Wood. In a deposition last week, Amy Lee Copeland, Travis McMichael’s attorney, wrote that her client had received “hundreds of threats,” including “statements that his image was circulated through the state prison system on clandestine cell phones, which people “they expect that he should not have entered the yard, and that the prison officers have promised a willingness (whether paid or free) to keep certain doors unlocked and their backs turned to allow prisoners to harm him.” But members of Mr. Arbery’s family came to federal court in Brunswick, Ga., on Monday and argued that the three men deserved no special treatment after their own notorious acts of vigilantism against Mr. Arbery. “These three devils have broken my heart to pieces,” Marcus Arbery Sr., Mr. Arbery’s father, told the court on Monday. He added that he hopes the men “will rot in state prisons.” In three separate hearings, defense attorneys for the three men asked that at least the first part of their clients’ terms be served in the federal system. Ms Copeland noted the “rich irony” that her client was concerned about vigilante violence. But he argued for a period of “psychosis” in federal prison to last while the appeals process takes place. Putting her client in state prison now, she said, would “effectively” lead to a “death sentence behind the door.” In announcing their investigation, federal officials said security problems in Georgia’s prison system were exacerbated by staff shortages, training issues and other factors. Ms. Copeland cited an analysis by Georgia Public Broadcasting that found 53 homicides had occurred in Georgia state prisons in 2020 and 2021. The McMichaels and Mr. Bryan are currently being held at a local jail, the Glynn County Detention Center, where they have been since their arrest in May 2020. They have been free for weeks after Travis McMichael shot Mr. Arbery at point-blank range. a shotgun. The fatal shooting came after the men, in a pair of pickup trucks, chased Mr. Arbery, who was on foot, through their suburban neighborhood of Satilla Shores, just outside Brunswick. The chase and killing were captured on video widely circulated online, sparking outrage around the world and claims by civil rights leaders that Mr Arbery had suffered a modern-day lynching. Moments before the chase, Mr Arbery was inside a house under construction. the McMichaels had suspected him of committing a series of property crimes. Relatives of Mr Arbery said Mr Arbery, an avid runner, had been out jogging on Sunday. At trial, prosecutors argued that all three defendants harbored racial animosity toward blacks. In court Monday, AJ Balbo, Gregory McMichael’s attorney, pleaded for leniency, noting that his client suffered from heart problems and bouts of depression and anxiety. Mr. Bryan’s lawyer, J. Pete Theodocion, noted that his client, unlike the McMichaels, had not grabbed a gun when he joined the chase. Prosecutors noted, however, that Mr. Bryan had used his truck to block Mr. Arberry as he tried to run out of the neighborhood. Judge Wood said she had spent a long time considering the appropriate sentences for the men. At one point, he referred to the February 2022 federal trial he presided over, in which all three men were found guilty of federal hate crimes. It was a fair trial, Judge Wood said – “the kind of trial Ahmaud Arbery didn’t get before he was shot and killed”. The three men did not take the stand during their trials. But on Monday, Mr Bryan apologized to Mr Arbery’s family: “I never intended to harm him,” he said. Travis McMichael declined to address the court. But his father spoke before his sentencing. “The loss you have endured is beyond description,” Gregory McMichael told the Arbury family. “I’m sure my words mean very little to you. But I want to assure you that I never wanted any of this to happen.” The McMichaels were given additional sentences, consecutive and not concurrent, for the use of firearms in the incident. Mr. Bryan was technically given 447 months, with 27 months off for time served. “By the time you serve your federal sentence, you will be almost 90 years old,” the judge told Mr. Bryan. “But then again, Mr. Arberry never got the chance to be 26.”
