One of the men convicted of killing Ahmed Arbery fears he will be murdered in a Georgia state prison, according to a memo filed by his lawyers ahead of Monday’s sentencing.
Travis McMichael, 36, was convicted of state murder along with his father Gregory Johns McMichael and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan in connection with the 2020 shooting of Mr. Arbery. The three mistook a 25-year-old black man running near Georgia for a burglar, chased him and killed him.
The McMichaels were sentenced to life without parole, while Bryan was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
The trio, who were also convicted on federal hate crime charges in February, are scheduled to be sentenced on Monday.
Last week, Travis McMichael’s attorney filed a memo requesting that her client be kept in federal custody rather than transferred to a state prison because he fears for his life.
Amy Lee Copeland told federal court in a memo that the young McMichael has been held at the Greene County Detention Center since May 2020 and was threatened that people were “waiting for him” and that he “should not have entered. yard, and correctional officers have pledged to be willing (whether reimbursable or free) to keep certain doors unlocked and turn around for the inmate to harm him,” CNN report.
“His concern is that he will be executed immediately after being sent to the state prison system: he has received numerous death threats, and given that all circumstances are credible, the government is taking action against the Georgia DOC’s ability to increase the murder rate by two. system to protect the safety of prisoners at times,” the memo said.
According to CNN, it added that McMichael received so many threats that he stopped counting “about 800 threats” in January, in addition to citing “government investigation into Georgia prison violence” “.
Last week, a lawyer for his father made a similar request, asking a judge not to send his client to a state prison “where surgery could expose prisoners to dangerous or even deadly activities,” according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Earlier this year, a court rejected a plea deal that allowed the McMichaels to serve 30 years in federal prison. The men faced another life sentence on Monday in a hearing in Brunswick, Georgia, that could be punishable by federal hate charges.
Mr. Arbery’s family opposed not only the plea deal, which was ultimately rejected by a judge, but also the possibility of the 25-year-old murderer serving time in federal rather than state custody.
