Justice is done for Ahmaud Arbery, one of the iconic figures of the Black Lives Matter movement like George Floyd.

The three white men who killed the 25-year-old African American just under a year ago while jogging the streets of his neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia, were sentenced to life in prison.

The jury last November had found them guilty of voluntary homicide, now the hard fist has arrived with the three life sentences, a sentence that the victim's family and the African American community have welcomed with satisfaction.

Travis and Greg McMichael, a father and son aged 65 and 35 who began a sort of manhunt and material perpetrators of the murder, were sentenced to life in prison without even having the opportunity to apply for parole in the future. The third defendant, William Bryan, 51, will only be able to do so after 30 years in prison.

The Arbery case was very striking: the young student was chased while he was training and killed. When Greg McMichael, a former policeman, and his son Travis took a 357 Magnum revolver and a shotgun, they got into the pickup truck and chased him past the house. Meanwhile, a neighbor, William Bryan, joined them in filming the scene, including the shots fired.

During the trial the defendants, calling themselves 'vigilantes', said they suspected that the young man had stolen from a house under construction where he had stopped shortly before and that they wanted to detain him until the police arrived. To motivate the shooting they tried to impose the line of self-defense, but their argument was rejected by the jury.

(Unioneonline / L)

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