US Prosecutors reach plea deal with two of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers
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Ahmaud Arbery's family decried the US Department of Justice's "betrayal" after 2 of his killers reached plea agreements with prosecutors in their federal hate crimes case.
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A portrait of Ahmaud Arbery during a candlelight vigil, Georgia (Reuters)
Two of Ahmaud Arbery's killers, Travis and Gregory McMichael, have accepted plea deals with prosecutors in their federal hate crimes case involving Ahmaud Arbery's 2020 murder in Georgia, according to court records released Sunday night.
Arbery's family's attorneys issued a statement stating they are "vehemently against" planned plea deals struck ahead of the hate crimes trial on Feb. 7, which would sentence the murderers to serve the first 30 years of prison in a preferred federal prison.
The agreements will be challenged in court on Monday, according to Arbery family lawyer Lee Merritt, who tweeted: "This backroom deal represents a betrayal to the Arbery family who is devastated."
Gregory & Travis McMichael have signed plea deals with the DOJ to allow the men— serving Life Without the Possibility of Parole in GA state prison— to transfer to preferred Federal Custody.
— Lee Merritt (@MerrittForTexas) January 31, 2022
This back room deal represents a betrayal to the Arbery family who is devastated. pic.twitter.com/SAVG1syLS9
In a family statement, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said that "the DOJ (Department of Justice) has gone behind my back to offer the men who murdered my son a deal to make their time in prison easier for them to serve.”
"I have made it clear at every possible moment that I do not agree to offer these men a plea deal of any kind. I have been completely betrayed by the DOJ's lawyers," she added.
The trial was supposedly concluded on January 8, as jury found Travis and Gregory McMichael, father and son respectively, and their neighbor, William Bryan, guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old black man who was jogging in the neighborhood, in February 2020.
The McMichaels were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The neighbor, Bryan, also received the maximum penalty for life; however, he was offered the possibility of parole in 30 years' time.
It is worth mentioning that prosecutors pursued the case only after video evidence of the murder went viral in May 2020, causing widespread anger.
The murder
In February 2020, Arbery, was killed by a white man and his son in Georgia. The murderers pursued Arbery, who was jogging at the time, and the son brutally shot him at close range using a shotgun. The whole case was unprovoked, and the only reason behind the barbaric homicide, which could be dubbed as lynching, was the father and son allegedly thinking Arbery was a burglar - however, no criminal evidence whatsoever verifies that.
The father, Greg McMichael, and his son, Travis, were later charged with murder alongside a neighbor, William Bryan, who joined the chase and recorded the crime on his phone.
Hate crimes in the land of the free
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has recently reported that the number of hate crimes in the United States has increased to its highest level in 12 years in 2020, driven by an increase in assaults on Black and Asian people.
Last year, the federal agency recorded 7,759 hate crimes, a tumultuous year marked by a global pandemic, a divisive presidential election, and economic upheaval. The total was up 6% from last year and the highest since 2008 when 7,783 hate crimes were reported.
The number of attacks has increased for the sixth time in the last seven years. According to federal data, the number of reported hate crimes has increased by nearly 42% since 2014.
