The white father and son convicted of murder in Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting after they chased the 25-year-old Black man through a Georgia neighborhood were sentenced Monday to life in prison for committing a federal hate crime.
US District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood handed down the sentences against Travis McMichael, 36, and his father, Greg McMichael, 66, reiterating the gravity of the February 2020 killing that shattered their Brunswick community. William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, who recorded cellphone video of the slaying, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
“A young man is dead. Ahmaud Arbery will be forever 25. And what happened, a jury found, happened because he’s Black,” Wood said.
The sentences imposed Monday brought an end to more than two years of criminal proceedings against the men responsible for Arbery’s slaying, which along with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky fueled a wave of protests across the country against the killings of unarmed Black people.
The McMichaels were previously sentenced to life without parole in state court for Arbery’s murder and had asked the judge to divert them to a federal prison to serve their sentences, saying they were worried about their safety in the state prison system.
Bryan had sought to serve his federal sentence first. Wood declined all three requests.
In February, a federal jury convicted the McMichaels and Bryan of violating Arbery’s civil rights, concluding they targeted him because of his race. All three were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels were convicted of using guns in the commission of a violent crime.
The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery after he ran past their home on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan, a neighbor, joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery with a shotgun. The McMichaels told police they suspected Arbery was a burglar, but investigators determined he was unarmed and had committed no crimes.
“I’m very thankful,” Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told reporters outside the courthouse after all three sentences had been imposed. “It’s been a long fight. I’m so thankful God gave us the strength to continue to fight.”
In court, Greg McMichael addressed the Arbery family, saying their loss was “beyond description.”
“I’m sure my words mean very little to you, but I want to assure you I never wanted any of this to happen," he said. “There was no malice in my heart or my son’s heart that day.”
Bryan said he was sorry for what happened to Arbery.
“I never intended any harm to him, and I never would have played any role in what happened if I knew then what I know now," he said.
In giving Bryan a lower sentence, Wood noted he had not brought a gun to the pursuit of Arbery and preserved his cell phone video, which was crucial to the prosecutions.
Travis McMichael declined to address the court, but his attorney, Amy Lee Copeland, said a lighter sentence would be more consistent with what similarly charged defendants have received in other cases, noting that the officer who killed Floyd in Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin, got 21 years in prison for violating Floyd’s civil rights, though he was not charged with targeting Floyd because of his race.
Greg McMichael's attorney, A.J. Balbo, also cited the Chauvin sentence as well as his client's age and health problems, which he said include a stroke and depression.
During the February hate crimes trial, prosecutors fortified their case that Arbery’s killing was motivated by racism by showing the jury roughly two dozen text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Bryan used racist slurs and made disparaging comments about Black people.
“The evidence we presented at trial proved ... what so many people felt in their hearts when they watched the video of Ahmaud’s tragic and unnecessary death: This would have never happened if he had been white,” Christopher Perras, another prosecutor, said Monday.
A state Superior Court judge imposed life sentences for the McMichaels and Bryan in January for Arbery's murder, with both McMichaels denied any chance of parole. All three defendants have remained jailed in coastal Glynn County, in the custody of U.S. marshals, while awaiting sentencing after their federal convictions.
Because they were first charged and convicted of murder in a state court, protocol would have them turned them over to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve their life terms in a state prison.
Copeland said during Monday's hearing for Travis McMichael that her client has received hundreds of threats that he will be killed as soon as he arrives at state prison and that his photo has been circulated there on illegal phones.
“I am concerned your honor that my client effectively faces a back door death penalty," she said, adding that “retribution and revenge” were not sentencing factors, even for a defendant who is “publicly reviled.”
Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery Sr., said Travis McMichael had shown his son no mercy and deserved to “rot" in state prison.
“You killed him because he was a Black man and you hate Black people," he said.
“You deserve no mercy.”
Source: AP
Fast News
The United States has warned Americans travelling abroad they face an increased risk of violence after the US announced the killing of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri.
His killing in a drone strike in Kabul over the weekend dealt the biggest blow to Al Qaeda since the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, prompting US President Joe Biden to declare that "justice had been delivered."
Following the strike, the US State Department on Tuesday urged US citizens to "maintain a high level of vigilance and practice good situational awareness when traveling abroad."
"Current information suggests that terrorist organisations continue to plan terrorist attacks against US interests in multiple regions across the globe," the department said in a statement.
"These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics including suicide operations, assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings and bombings."
READ MORE: What will happen to Al Qaeda after Zawahiri’s assassination?
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IveQR9Na83k[/embed]
Taliban condemns strike
A senior official in the Biden administration said the 71-year-old Zawahiri was on the balcony of a three-story house in the Afghan capital when targeted with two Hellfire missiles after dawn Sunday.
It was the first known over-the-horizon strike by the United States on a target in Afghanistan since Washington withdrew its forces from the country on August 31 last year, days after the Taliban swept back to power.
The Taliban condemned the drone strike on Tuesday, but made no mention of casualties nor did they name Zawahiri.
READ MORE: Ayman al Zawahiri: From surgeon to top Al Qaeda leader
Source: AFP
DALLAS -- A man who evaded arrest for more than 12 years after being accused of fatally shooting his two teenage daughters in a taxi parked near a Dallas-area hotel was “obsessed with possession and control,” a prosecutor said Tuesday during opening statements of his capital murder trial.
“He controlled what they did, who they talked to, who they could be friends with, if they and who they could date," prosecutor Lauren Black said. "And he controlled everything in his household."
Yaser Said, 65, is accused of killing 18-year-old Amina Said and 17-year-old Sarah Said on New Year’s Day in 2008. Said, who entered a not guilty plea Tuesday, faces an automatic life sentence if convicted.
About a week before the sisters were killed, they and their mother fled their home in the Dallas suburb of Lewisville to Oklahoma to get away from Yaser Said, who worked as a taxi driver, Black said. The sisters had become “very scared for their lives,” and the decision to leave was made after Said “put a gun to Amina's head and threatened to kill her,” the prosecutor said.
But, Black said, in another act of “control” and “manipulation” by Said, he told them he had changed and convinced them to return home. The evening the sisters were shot, their father wanted to take just the two of them to a restaurant, she said.
In a letter written to the judge overseeing the case, Said said he was not happy with his kids’ “dating activity” but denied killing his daughters. Defense attorney Joseph Patton said in opening statements that the evidence would not support a conviction, that police were too quick to focus on Said and suggested that anti-Muslim sentiment played into that focus. Said was born in Egypt.
Before the sisters were found shot to death in a taxi parked near a hotel in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Sarah Said had managed to call 911 using a cellphone, telling the operator that her father shot her and that she was dying.
Black said Sarah Said was shot nine times and Amina Said was shot twice.
In moments of extreme trauma, like being shot multiple times, people can have hallucinations, Patton said.
In an email to her Lewisville High School history teacher a few days before she and her sister were killed, Amina Said said that she and Sarah did not want to live by their father’s culture and marry men from the Middle East, “especially men we don’t know or love.” So they were running away from their father's home, she said in the email prosecutors read into evidence.
“I know that he will search until he finds us, and he will without any drama nor doubt kill us,” the email read.
After the sisters were found fatally shot in the taxi, police contacted the taxi's registered owner, who said Yaser Said had been driving the taxi for the past 10 days, according to an affidavit for an arrest warrant.
Said, who had been sought on a capital murder warrant since the slayings, was placed on the FBI's most-wanted list. He was finally arrested in August 2020 in Justin, about 35 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Dallas. His son, Islam Said, and his brother, Yassim Said, were subsequently convicted of helping him evade arrest.
Black said the sisters, both high school students in Lewisville, dreamed of becoming doctors, and that Yaser Said grew “angrier” as they grew up and became more educated and independent.
“When they had more independence, that was less control for him,” Black said.
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday said that Pakistan stands by counter-terrorism efforts in accordance with international law and relevant UN resolutions.
The statement from the Foreign Ministry came after the killing of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a CIA drone strike in Afghanistan.
Addressing media queries regarding the crucial development, the ministry’s spokesperson said that Pakistan’s role and sacrifices in the fight against terrorism are well-known.
“Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” the statement read.
The statement further added that they have seen the official statements by the United States and media reports regarding a counter-terrorism operation carried out by the US in Afghanistan.
After the incident yesterday, President Joe Biden announced that the United States had killed Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the world's most-wanted terrorists and suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
In a televised address, Biden said the strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, had been carried out on Saturday. "I gave the final approval to go get him," he said, adding that there had been no civilian casualties.
Saturday, July 30, 2022
Ukraine claims killing scores of Russians in Kherson fighting
The Ukrainian military has said it had killed scores of Russian soldiers and destroyed two ammunition dumps in fighting in the Kherson region, the focus of Kiev's counter-offensive in the south and a key link in Moscow's supply lines.
Rail traffic to Kherson over the Dnipro River had been cut, the military's southern command said, potentially further isolating Russian forces west of the river from supplies in occupied Crimea and the east.
Ukraine has used Western-supplied long-range missile systems to badly damage three bridges across the Dnipro in recent weeks, cutting off Kherson city and – in the assessment of British defence officials – leaving Russia's 49th Army stationed on the west bank of the river highly vulnerable.
"As a result of fire establishing control over the main transport links in occupied territory, it has been established that traffic over the rail bridge crossing the Dnipro is not possible," Ukraine's southern command said in a statement.
Ukraine calls for Russia to be recognised as 'state sponsor of terrorism'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the deaths of dozens of prisoners in a Russian-held jail showed there should be clear legal recognition that Russia was a "state sponsor of terrorism."
"Today, I received information about the attack by the occupiers on Olenivka (the prison's location), in the Donetsk region. It is a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war. More than 50 dead," he said in his daily address.
"I am appealing especially to the United States of America. A decision is needed and it is needed now."
For live updates from Friday (July 29), click here
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
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A 16-year-old Ohio boy is being sought by police for the killing of a mother of five children caught in crossfire.
A warrant was issued after Kyrim A. Curenton was identified as a suspect in the July 16 death of Lelia King, Fox 28 reported. He faces charges of reckless homicide and weapons under disability.
The shooting occurred around 8:40 p.m. and a good Samaritan was providing aid to King when officers arrived at the scene, police said.
BABY FORMULA SHORTAGE REMAINS A HUGE PROBLEM FOR OHIO FAMILY WITH 4-MONTH-OLD INFANT
A Columbus Division of Police cruiser. A local teenage boy is being sought for the killing of a mother of five children last week. (Columbus Division of Police)
She was taken to a hospital where she later died.
Authorities said King was about to get out of her car and go into a convenience store when she was caught in gunfire being exchanged between two groups.
