3 sentenced to life term prison for killing Arbery

The three white men who chased and killed black man Ahmaud Arbery two years ago while the latter was jogging in their neighborhood in the U.S. state of Georgia were sentenced to life in prison on Friday, with two of the three murderers being denied any chance for parole, reported Xinhua.

Greg McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, who killed the 25-year-old Arbery with a shotgun on Feb. 23, 2020, were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Their neighbor, William Bryan, who later joined in the deadly pursuit and recorded it with a cellphone video, was granted a parole, but that will happen only after he has served in prison for 30 years.

A retired police detective, McMichael the father suspected that Arbery, who was unarmed and was merely running for the purpose of exercising near his home on the outskirts of Brunswick, Georgia, was the offender in break-in cases in the neighborhood. He grabbed guns and chased the youngster in a pick-up truck together with his son, who, after Arbery was cornered, clashed with him and shot three times at close range to kill him.

Greg and Travis McMichael -- 66 and 35, respectively - and Bryan, 52, were convicted of murder and other charges in November. They also face a separate federal trial on hate crime charges scheduled for Feb. 7.

Arbery's murder has become part of a nationwide reckoning over racial injustice, and Judge Timothy Walmsley said before announcing the sentence that "sentencing does not generally provide closure."

"In this case, I think many people are seeking closure. The mother, the father, the community, and maybe even parts of the nation, but closure is hard to define and is a granular concept. It's seen differently by all depending on their perspective and the prism of your lives," Walmsley said.