Well, this is something someone should have thought about before killing an innocent Black man. According to court documents, one of the men found guilty of killing Ahmaud Arbery fears being killed in state prison.
In November 2021, Travis McMichael, his father Greg, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, were found guilty in the February 2020 fatal shooting of Arbery. The McMichaels received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Bryan received a life sentence with the possibility of parole. They were also found guilty of federal hate crime charges and will face sentencing for that next week.
Travis McMichael’s attorney Amy Lee Copeland filed a memorandum on Thursday in federal court asking for him to remain in the physical custody of the federal government because apparently, he is afraid he’ll be killed once in the Georgia state prison system, CNN reported.
McMichael has been detained at the Glynn County Detention Center since he was arrested in May 2020, according to the memo, and has since received threats that people “are ‘waiting for him,’ that he should not go into the yard. He was also told that correctional officers have promised a willingness (whether for pay or for free) to keep certain doors unlocked and backs turned to allow inmates to harm him.”
“His concern is that he will promptly be killed upon delivery to the state prison system for service of that sentence: He has received numerous threats of death that are credible in light of all circumstances, and the government has a pending investigation into the Georgia DOC’s ability to keep inmates safe in a system where murder rates have tripled,” the memo continued.
It also claims McMichael has received hundreds of threats and “quit counting in January 2022, at around 800 threats.”
Along with the concerns for his safety, the memo also cites “the government’s investigation into the violence in Georgia state prisons” as reasons that he should remain in the physical custody of the federal government.
Arbery’s family has objected to the killers serving time in federal instead of state prison.
