BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP / NewsNation Now) — U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood rejected plea agreements Monday that would have averted a hate crimes trial for the father and son convicted of murdering 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. NewsNation Correspondent Janel Forte reports the judge said she would not be comfortable being locked in to the terms of the agreements.
The hate crime charges accuse the McMichaels and William “Roddie” Bryan of violating the 25-year-old Black man’s civil rights by chasing him through their neighborhood in coastal Georgia on Feb. 23, 2020. The McMichaels armed themselves and pursued Arbery in one pickup truck while Bryan joined the chase in another and recorded video of Travis McMichael blasting Arbery with a shotgun.
The rejected plea deal would have allowed Travis McMichael to plead guilty to one count of interference with rights and admit that this crime was racially motivated. Federal prosecutors and McMichael’s lawyer agreed that he should be sentenced to 30 years in federal prison – and that he’d serve that sentence first before returning to Georgia to serve a state life sentence. The agreement also included a waiver of any federal appeal.
The judge gave the McMichaels until Friday to decide whether they move ahead with pleading guilty. If they choose not to plead guilty, the federal trial would begin Monday.
The now-rejected plea agreement was denounced by Arbery’s parents Monday morning and his mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, called it “disrespectful.”
“I fought so hard to get these guys in the state prison,” she said. “I told them very, very adamantly that I wanted them to go to state prison and do their time. … Then I got up this morning and found out they had accepted this ridiculous plea.”
The judge is also yet to consider whether Greg McMichael’s plea deal will remain in place. Left out of the plea deals was co-defendant Bryan who also faces federal hate crime charges.
Both of Arbery’s parents, Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery, along with two of the slain man’s aunts asked Godbey Wood to reject the plea Monday in court.
The slain man’s father, Marcus Arbery, told reporters he was “mad as hell” over the deal, which Merritt said could have enabled the McMichael to spend the first 30 years of their life sentences in federal prison, rather than state prison where conditions are tougher.
“Ahmaud is a kid you cannot replace,” Arbery said. “He was killed racially and we want 100% justice, not no half justice.”
Wood continued preparations to summon summoning the first 50 potential jurors to the courthouse on Feb. 7 for questioning. The federal judge ordered that a jury pool be chosen from throughout the Southern District of Georgia, which covers 43 counties, to improve odds of seating a fair and unbiased jury.
A national outcry erupted when the graphic video leaked online two months later. Georgia was one of just four U.S. states without a hate crimes law at the time. Legislators quickly approved one, but it came too late for state hate crime charges in Arbery’s killing.
