Ahmaud Arbery's Killers To Be Sentenced In August For Hate Crimes

GEORGIA — Court documents released Tuesday show that the three men convicted of hate crimes in the chasing and killing of Ahmaud Arbery will be sentenced in federal court at 10 a.m. on Aug. 1 in Brunswick.

Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, each face a maximum penalty of life in prison in connection with the 2020 death of the 25-year-old Black man.

It is possible the date could change. According to court records, the prosecution has asked that the sentencing take place sometime after Aug. 6.

McMichaels and Bryan are already serving life sentences in Georgia after being convicted of murder in a state court last fall. The trio stood trial a second time in federal court, where they were found guilty on Feb. 22 of committing hate crimes after a jury concluded Arbery's killing was motivated by race.

SEE ALSO:

• Ahmaud Arbery's Killers Sentenced To Prison For Vigilante Murder
• Ahmaud Arbery Verdict: 3 Defendants Convicted On Murder Charges
• Ahmaud Arbery Hate Crime Trial Jury Selection Continues: Report
• Officer In Hate Crimes Trial Says Ahmaud Arbery Did Not Steal
• Guilty Verdict Reached In Ahmaud Arbery Federal Hate Crimes Trial
• Ahmaud Arbery Case: Photo Timeline From To Shooting To The Trial

Prior to that, Bryan and the McMichaels were all found guilty of murder and other charges in Nov. 2021 for chasing and cornering Arbery as he ran through their Satilla Shores neighborhood in February 2020. While the McMichaels had guns, Bryan did not, and instead shot video of the pursuit and shooting.

The assailants invoked a decades-old citizen's arrest law, claiming suspicion of Arbery in connection with a string of burglaries and thefts in the neighborhood. But surveillance video of him entering a neighborhood home under construction played during the trial only showed Arbery milling about the house without taking anything.

While the life sentences handed down in the state's murder case made the hate crimes trial that followed largely symbolic, federal prosecutors used the second trial to reveal how all three defendants had espoused racist views.

To back the hate crime charges, prosecutors showed the jury roughly two dozen text messages and social media posts showing Travis McMichael and Bryan repeatedly using racial slurs in text messages and social media posts.

Defense attorneys have argued that the McMichaels and Bryan didn’t chase and kill Arbery because of his race, but acted on their earnest, though erroneous, suspicion that Arbery had committed crimes in their neighborhood.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.