Travis McMichael, left, speaks with his attorney during the sentencing against him and his father Greg McMichael at the Brunswick County, Ga., courthouse. POOL (REUTERS)
Gregory McMichael, 66, and his son Travis, 36, sentenced to life in prison for the murder of African-American Ahmaud Arbery, have withdrawn this Friday their guilty plea for a hate crime against the young man who died in February 2020. McMichael, white, will face trial starting next week on federal hate crime charges.
Also going to the dock will be William “Roddie” Bryan, who recorded the chase and witnessed the shooting that ended Arbey's life, and who was also sentenced to life in prison, but was granted the right to parole.
Earlier this week, the McMichaels confessed for the first time to the hate crime against the African-American, claiming that they chased him with a gun because of his "race and color."
The confession was made under a plea deal with federal prosecutors.
However, a federal judge on Friday afternoon rejected the deal that included the culprits serving their sentence in a federal prison, considered less harsh than state prisons, for the first 30 years.
“The State of Georgia has already given these men exactly what they deserve.
Please leave it at that," Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said earlier this week when she asked the judge to reject the plea deal.
In a brief hearing in district court in Brunswick, Georgia, Travis McMichael said Friday that he was withdrawing his guilty plea.
On Thursday night, his father, Gregory, did the same.
In the text of the rejected plea agreement, the McMichaels admitted that racism played a role in their decision to grab their shotgun, climb into the truck and chase Arbery through the quiet streets of residential Satilla Shores.
Video recorded on Bryan's cell phone shows the chase and gunshots in broad daylight.
The event was highly publicized because no arrests were made until the recording was made public two months later.
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