Convicted of hate crime for murder of black jogger

1659997916 Convicted of hate crime for murder of black jogger

Published: Less than 2 hours ago

full screen Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson escorts Wanda Cooper Jones, mother of murdered Ahmaud Arbery, to court on Monday to hear the sentence handed down. Photo: Lewis M. Levine/AP/TT

Two men are sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a black jogger in the US state of Georgia.

The 35-year-old man who fired the fatal shots and his 66-year-old father were previously sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by a state court. Now they are being sentenced in a federal court for hate crimes as well. According to the jury, the men attacked 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery precisely because of his skin color.

Arbery was out jogging in a residential neighborhood in the city of Brunswick in February 2020 when the two men began chasing him in a car and then fatally shot him at close range.

A third man, a 52-year-old neighbor, joined the chase in his own car and filmed the fatal shooting. The recording was later leaked online. He was sentenced in state court to life in prison with the possibility of parole in the future. The federal court sentences him to 35 years in prison for hate crimes.

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