After a failed plea deal with the Department of Justice, all three of the Georgia men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020 will face a federal hate-crimes trial.
Travis McMichael withdrew a pledge to plead guilty to federal hate-crimes charges during a Friday hearing just days after a judge rejected a proposed deal that would have allowed him to potentially spend decades of his lengthy prison sentence in a federal penitentiary rather than a state facility. The plea flip came just hours after his father, Gregory McMichael, also withdrew his pledge to plead guilty in a deal that had previously spurred outrage from the community and Arbery's family.
The McMichaels and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, were sentenced to life in prison after all three were convicted of state crimes—including felony murder—in the Feb. 23, 2020, homicide death of Arbery. The 25-year-old Black man’s slaying, captured in a dramatic video by Bryan, drew national outrage weeks before the police killing of George Floyd set off a wave of protests against racist cops across the country.
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Now, all three men are headed to trial for several federal crimes, including one count of interference with rights, on Monday. Lawyers for the defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposed federal plea deal with the Department of Justice, which was filed Sunday evening, was rejected during a Monday hearing by U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood after statements from Arbery's family insisting that the men deserved to spend the first 30 years of their life sentence in state prison rather than federal prison.
“Given the unique circumstances of this case and my desire to hear from all concerned regarding sentencing before I pronounce a sentence, I am not comfortable accepting the terms of the plea agreement,” Wood said on Monday.
Already sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the McMichaels choosing to stand trial on the federal charges means they could face another life sentence. Bryan, who was sentenced in state court to life in prison with the possibility of parole, also faces life without parole in the federal case.
Throughout an almost three-week state trial, prosecutors convinced a jury that Arbery was on a jog through Satilla Shores when the trio chased him down the street after wrongly suspecting him of burglary. Travis McMichael was caught on video footage filmed by Bryan firing the fatal shots.
Defense lawyers for the men unsuccessfully argued during the trial that their clients were trying to perform a citizen’s arrest on Arbery in connection with suspected break-ins in the area.
Notably, however, state jurors did not hear any arguments from prosecutors about allegations that Travis McMichael called Arbery a “fucking n-----,” as Arbery lay on the ground with several gunshot wounds—nor that McMichael had a Confederate truck decal. On Monday, prosecutors argued that the younger McMichael “associated Black people with criminality for years, and harbored resentment toward African-American people.”
“Travis McMichael did not belong to any hate group and did not set out on Feb. 23, 2020, to carry out an act of violence against an African American person,” prosecutors argued on Monday. “But he made assumptions about Mr. Arbery that he would not have made if Ahmaud Arbery had been white.”
