Ahmaud Arbery’s mother gave an emotional statement in court as the three men who were convicted for murdering her son await their sentencing.
On Friday (Jan. 7), Wanda-Cooper Jones started her victim impact statement by speaking directly to her late son. “This verdict doesn’t bring you back, but it does help bring closure to this very difficult chapter of my life,” she said. “I made a promise to you the day I laid you to rest: I told you I loved you, and someday, somehow, I would get you justice. Son, I love you as much today as I did the day you were born. Raising you was the honor of my life, and I’m very proud of you.”
Jones went on to address the controversial remarks that defense lawyer Laura Hogue made about her son wearing “khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails” on the day he was murdered. “He was messy, he sometimes refused to wear socks,” Arbery’s mother added. “I wish he would have cut and cleaned his toenails before he went out for that jog that day. I guess he would have, if he knew he would be murdered.”
As REVOLT previously reported, Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan were found guilty of murder for Arbery’s death. On Feb. 23, 2020, the McMichaels and Bryan hunted, cornered and murdered the 25-year-old as he jogged through a Georgia neighborhood.
The three convicted murderers are being sentenced on Friday (Jan. 7). The McMichaels and Bryan face mandatory sentences of life in prison with or without parole, although murder is punishable by death in the state of Georgia.
Jones has asked the court to impose the maximum sentence. “These men have chose to lie and attack my son and his surviving family. They each have no remorse and do not deserve any leniency,” she said Friday.