Gregory McMichael, a 66-year-old former police officer, and his son Travis, 35, sentenced to life in prison for the murder of African-American Ahmaud Arbery, acknowledged for the first time on Monday that they harassed the young man with a weapon because of his “race and color” . The pursuit ended in Arbey’s death in broad daylight in the residential suburb of Brunswick, Georgia. The McMichaels changed their plea and confessed to the hate crime under a plea deal with federal prosecutors, which included serving their life sentence in a federal prison, considered less harsh than state prison, for the first 30 years. . However, a federal judge this afternoon rejected the deal.
Arbery’s family appeared in district court in Brunswick to ask Judge Lisa Wood not to accept the settlement. “Please listen to me: Giving these men the conditions of confinement they prefer is going to kill me. It gives them one last chance to spit in my face after murdering my son,” said Wanda Cooper-Jones, mother of the 25-year-old murdered in February 2020.
Arbery had been out for a run in that neighborhood when the McMichaels saw him pass their house. The men thought he was a thief who had been prowling around the neighborhood and chased him with guns drawn in a pickup truck. Arbery didn’t stop when they ordered him to and they managed to surround him. Travis got out of the vehicle with a shotgun and, in a dispute over the gun, shot the young man three times, who died. “A lynching in broad daylight,” the state prosecutor’s office called it during the trial. “The State of Georgia has already given these men exactly what they deserve. Please leave it at that,” Cooper-Jones added.
For now, Judge Wood’s decision only affects Travis McMichael, who will face trial next week on federal hate crime charges. He is scheduled to rule later on the request of Gregory McMichael, who also changed his plea and pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. Both were convicted of murder last November in state court in Brunswick. His neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, who recorded the chase from another truck and witnessed the shooting, was also sentenced to life in prison but was granted parole.
Subscribe here to newsletter of EL PAÍS America and receive all the informative keys of the current affairs of the region
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
subscribe
#murderers #AfricanAmerican #Ahmaud #Arbery #recognize #hate #crime