A judge has denied a federal plea deal for one of Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers after the Black man’s family begged the court to take his killers to trial and to not allow them to serve their sentences in a comfier federal prison.
Travis McMichael, 35, pleaded guilty on Monday afternoon to federal hate crimes charges that he violated Arbery’s civil rights and targeted him because he was Black as part of a plea deal reached with federal prosecutors the day before.
The guilty plea marked the first time that McMichael, who is serving life without parole for Arbery’s murder, has admitted that he chased and killed the Black 25-year-old because of his race.
US District Judge Lisa Godbey rejected the deal saying she was not willing to be bound by the terms of the agreement that he would be moved to a federal prison for the next 30 years.
The judge said that it is appropriate to hear from “all concerned including the victim’s family” at sentencing and that, because the deal stipulated a federal sentence of 30 years, she would be unable to do so and so would reject the deal.
“It is my decision to reject the plea agreement. In this case, it is appropriate to hear at sentencing from all concerned including the victim’s family,” she said.
The decision came after federal prosecutors reached a plea deal with both Travis McMichael and his father Gregory McMichael, 66, on Sunday evening, in a move that appeared to blindside Arbery’s family.
The Black man’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones pleaded with the judge not to accept the deal, saying in a victim impact statement in the courtroom that it would “defeat” her.
“Ahmaud wasn’t given the option of a plea. Ahmaud was killed. Ahmaud was hunted down. I’m asking on behalf of my family. Please do not accept this plea,” she said, reported CBS64 journalist Hayley Mason.
“I’m asking on the behalf of his family, on behalf of his memory and on behalf of fairness that you do not grant this plea in order to allow these men to transfer out of Georgia state custody into the federal prisons where they prefer to be.”
McMichael now has until Friday to decide whether to withdraw his guilty plea and re-enter a not guilty plea.
Federal prosecutors on Monday had pointed to his use of racist language in multiple social media posts and text messages to show that he had racist assumptions and that those assumptions led him to target Arbery that day.
Gregory McMichael was also expected to enter his own guilty plea in a hearing straight after his son’s. It is not clear if he will still change his plea following the judge’s rejection of the deal.
He has also been given until Friday to reach a decision.
The father and son duo had originally entered not guilty pleas but planned to change them after striking a deal with prosecutors on Sunday.
Their codefendant William “Roddie” Bryan Jr, 52, has not reached a plea deal and so is still expected to head to federal trial in February with or without them.
The three white men chased Arbery through the Satilla Shores neighbourhood of Georgia in their pickup trucks before Travis McMichael shot him dead in the road back in February 2020.
All three were found guilty of Arbery’s murder at a state trial in Brunswick back in November.
At their sentencing in January, Travis and Gregory McMichael were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole while Bryan was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, making him eligible for release after 30 years in prison.
The McMichaels and Bryan all faced separate hate crimes charges at a federal trial which was slated to begin on 7 February.
The hate crime charges accused the three men of using force to intimidate and interfere with Arbery’s rights because of his race. The federal charges also carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
On Sunday evening, just one week before the trial was set to begin, federal prosecutors filed motions to the court saying that they had reached plea agreements with the McMichaels.
The terms of the deals were not immediately clear in the court filings but the Arbery family revealed the agreements allow the McMichaels to spend the first 30 years of their sentences in federal prison before being moved to state prison for the remainder.
Gregory McMichael would be 96 years old by that time.
Arbery’s family condemned the deals and called the actions of the Justice Department “a betrayal”.
“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,” Ms Cooper-Jones in a statement.
“I have made it clear at every possible moment that I do not agree to offer these men a plea deal of any kind.”
Outside the court on Monday morning, she slammed the federal prosecutors’ actions as “disrespectful” while Arbery’s father Marcus Arbery said he was “mad at hell” over the proposal.
The family’s attorney Lee Merritt described the plea agreement as a “back room deal” that the victim’s family had been kept in the dark over and said the agreement would allow the killers to transfer to “a country club” of a prison.
“Federal prison is a country club when compared to state prison. Federal prisons are less populated, better funded and generally more accommodating than state prisons,” he tweeted.
“These men hurriedly entered this plea deal that would allow them to transfer out of custody from GA prison.”
Federal prisons are notoriously more comfortable than state prisons.
Earlier this month, Arbery’s family had rejected a plea deal for the three men which would have sentenced them to 30 years in federal prison on those charges.
Mr Merritt said at the time the family was contacted by the Justice Department hours before the state sentencing hearing but turned down the offer because they wanted the killers to also face federal trial.
The three killers were all in court on Monday morning for a pretrial hearing to tie up any trial housekeeping, followed by the plea hearings that afternoon.
