.thereidout Blog: The DOJ's plea agreements with Travis and Gregory McMichael blew up this week, setting the stage for a hate crime trial that begins Monday.
with the Department of Justice that would have allowed them to serve 30 years of their sentence in a federal prison rather than a state prison. It would have been the first time the men admitted publicly that Arbery's slaying was racially motivated.
But Arbery's family vehemently opposed the deal, arguing that federal prisons often have more resources and are more comfortable than state prisons. They strongly urged U.S. District Judge Lisa Wood to reject the deal, andWhen news of the plea agreements broke,attorney Lee Merritt called it “a huge accommodation to the men who hunted down and murdered Ahmaud Arbery.
earlier this week that the DOJ “entered the plea agreement only after the victims’ attorneys informed me that the family was not opposed to it.” But Merritt claimed that wasn’t entirely true. Speaking outside a federal courthouse earlier this week, Merritt said Arbery’s family had previously rejected the DOJ’s terms and “no longer wanted to engage” with prosecutors, who “took that as a deferral.”
In either event, the McMichaels and Bryan will not be serving time on their own terms, as expected. Jury selection for their federal trial begins Monday.
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