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The Arbery murderers' plea deal is off.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/31/ahmaud-arbery-hate-crime-plea-deal/Judge rejects plea deal for Travis McMichael and his father on federal hate-crime charges in Ahmaud Arbery’s murder
A judge on Monday rejected a plea deal prosecutors had reached with two of three White men facing federal hate-crime charges in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, casting uncertainty over a trial scheduled to begin next week.
Travis McMichael, 36, and his father, Gregory McMichael, 66, had been poised to admit that they targeted Arbery in part because he was Black, and prosecutors called the agreement an important step toward justice in a case that had fueled nationwide protests. The McMichaels and a third man, William “Roddie” Bryan, were all sentenced to life in prison in early January for 25-year-old Arbery’s murder in coastal Georgia.
But Arbery’s family asked the judge Monday to block the deal, which would have allowed the McMichaels to serve the first 30 years of their sentences in federal rather than state custody. A lawyer for Arbery’s mother had denounced the agreements as a “back room deal” that would have allowed the McMichaels to serve their sentences in better prison conditions.
“Granting these men their preferred conditions of confinement will defeat me,” Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said in court. “It gives them one last chance to spit in my face after murdering my son.”
The federal hate-crime indictment accuses the defendants of interfering with Arbery’s rights. It said the McMichaels cut off Arbery’s route and threatened him with firearms in a chase that Bryan eventually joined, using his truck to block Arbery’s path as well. It also alleged that all of the defendants sought to unlawfully trap Arbery and that the McMichaels brandished firearms, with Travis McMichael firing his shotgun.
Travis McMichael, 36, and his father, Gregory McMichael, 66, had been poised to admit that they targeted Arbery in part because he was Black, and prosecutors called the agreement an important step toward justice in a case that had fueled nationwide protests. The McMichaels and a third man, William “Roddie” Bryan, were all sentenced to life in prison in early January for 25-year-old Arbery’s murder in coastal Georgia.
But Arbery’s family asked the judge Monday to block the deal, which would have allowed the McMichaels to serve the first 30 years of their sentences in federal rather than state custody. A lawyer for Arbery’s mother had denounced the agreements as a “back room deal” that would have allowed the McMichaels to serve their sentences in better prison conditions.
“Granting these men their preferred conditions of confinement will defeat me,” Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said in court. “It gives them one last chance to spit in my face after murdering my son.”
The federal hate-crime indictment accuses the defendants of interfering with Arbery’s rights. It said the McMichaels cut off Arbery’s route and threatened him with firearms in a chase that Bryan eventually joined, using his truck to block Arbery’s path as well. It also alleged that all of the defendants sought to unlawfully trap Arbery and that the McMichaels brandished firearms, with Travis McMichael firing his shotgun.
And. If I understand correctly, the Feb 7 trial is based on a new civil rights indictment beyond the previous convictions and life sentences for murder.
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