Judge Rejects Plea Deal For Ahmaud Arbery’s Murderer Travis McMichael
On Monday (January 31), a federal judge rejected a plea agreement that would have averted a hate crimes trial for Travis McMichael, the white man convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery.
Arbery’s family fiercely objected to the proposed deal as unfair and unjust. According to the Associated Press, the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood came just hours after prosecutors provided notice that Travis and his son Greg McMichael had agreed to plead guilty to hate crime charges that they chased, threatened and killed the 25-year-old because of his race.
Attorneys for the Department of Justice asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District in Georgia to "dispose" of the charges against father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael, USA Today reports, citing court documents filed on Sunday (January 30).
The third defendant, William "Roddie" Bryan, was not believed to have filed a notice of a plea deal.
Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and Bryan, all of whom are white, chased Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, and cornered him with their pickup trucks on February 23, 2020 in Brunswick, Ga. The pursuit ended with Travis McMichael fatally shooting an unarmed Arbery.
On January 7, Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley sentenced both McMichaels to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Bryan also received a life sentence but was granted the possibility of parole.
The three men were charged with federal hate crimes and attempted kidnapping. At the time of Arbery's murder, Georgia did not have a hate crime law.
News of the McMichaels’ federal plea deal prompted an angry response from Arbery’s family.
According to the family’s attorney, Lee Merritt, Arbery’s parents, Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery, were “vehemently against this deal.”
"The DOJ has gone behind my back to offer the men who murdered my son a deal to make their time in prison easier for them to serve," Cooper-Jones said in a statement.
Merritt said the deal will allow the McMichaels to serve their sentence in federal prison, which he described as “a huge accommodation,” as conditions are usually better in federal prisons compared to state prisons.
“This back room deal represents a betrayal to the Arbery family who is devastated,” Merritt tweeted.
Travis McMichael would have received 30 years in federal prison to be served alongside the penalty of life in prison without parole imposed by a state court judge for the murder conviction. By pleading guilty, he would’ve given up any chance to appeal his federal sentence.
Wood said she was rejecting the deal because its terms would have locked her into a specific sentence, and that the Arbery family should have a say at sentencing in whatever punishment is ultimately given.
Now, it’s unclear whether Travis McMichael will withdraw the guilty plea and whether Greg McMichael, who had been offered the same judge-denied deal, will still plead guilty as planned. Wood gave both men until Friday to return to the federal courthouse to give their answer.
