additional life sentences, while their accomplice william roddie bryan, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. already sentenced in state court. the additional punishment comes after a jury found that the three white men were motivated by racism, when they chased and shot the 25-year-old black man. who was simply jogging through their neighborhood. joining me now, is wanda crip jones, ahmaud arbery s mother, and lee merritt, the attorney for the arbery family. wanda and lee, thank you for taking the time to meet on such an emotional day. thank you for having us. we re getting this sentence, two and a half years after your son was killed. when you re in the court, can you give me a sense, wanda, of what it s like to be in another courtroom and this time being
/PRNewswire/ The Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the Transformative Justice Coalition will assemble an All-Star panel of the nation s most prominent voting.
reporter: the jury, 11 of them white, also watched this video, recorded minutes before the shooting. it shows arbery walking inside a home under construction, doing nothing wrong. raising you was the honor of my life, and i m very proud of you. reporter: wanda cooper-jones urged maximum sentences for killing the son born on mother s day, 1994. they were fully committed to their crimes. let them be full let them be fully committed for the consequences. thank you! reporter: relief outside the courthouse for several dozen supporters of the arbery family. i knew that we would come out with a victory. yes. i never doubted it. reporter: defense lawyers argued that life without parole was unjust and plan to appeal. these same three defendants have more legal worries next month. their federal trial begins on
york prosecutor. he s an nbc news legal analyst. katie, who are we hearing from this court today and when can we expect the sentences to be handed down? reporter: well, as you said, this is a mandatory life sentence. the judge is determining whether any of the three defendants should have given the possibility of parole after serving 30 years. he will make that decision after hearing several testimonies from the stand. we know that arbery s mother and father will make brief statements. we don t know if anyone will call we know the defendants themselves will be given an opportunity to speak to the judge directly before they are sentenced. now, outside the courtroom, we re seeing a lot of the same familiar faces we ve been seeing throughout the trial. a lot of advocates for racial justice supporting the arbery family. this morning in the way into the courtroom, his mother talked and spoke to the media saying she will be seeking the harshest
they talked about how this was a day that they had been anticipating because they felt like it was a day of justice potentially for them, but, look, the attorneys for the three defendants have already said that they do plan to appeal and just next month the federal trial for the hate crime charges against all three of these men will begin hear in brunswick, and i m not sure. you may be able to hear or see behind me there are people who have like shown up, and they are showing their support to the family here. the attorney for travis mcmichael said today to the judge that they were hoping that they would have some story of redemption here for the mcmichaels and also for the arbery family. at that point ahmaud arbery s father looked hat his attorney and gave him a look and that s what we re dealing with at this point. we do expect it to be finished sometime today. diane gallagher. we know the court hearing will resume at the top of the hour. thank you. let s get some perspective. were yo