The father and son convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery are entering a plea deal for a safer and less crowded prison on Monday, January 31. However, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, and family attorney are not having it. They intend to oppose the plea deal in the Monday hearing.
The father-son duo, Gregory and Travis McMichael, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. The men were indicted on hate crime charges also. The murder gained national attention once the cryptic video went viral, demanding justice for the young black jogger.
The attorney, S. Lee Merritt, spoke out, after documents showing the men had reached a deal with prosecutors. Merritt described the family’s state of finding out as “devastated.”
Cooper-Jones says, “The (US 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 lawyers.”
According to Merritt’s Twitter account, federal prison is a “country club” compared to state prison, which is the issue. The father-son duo wants to move to federal prison for their safety even though they admitted their motivation for killing the jogger was hate.
Merritt says, “In essence, they get to publicly brag about their hatred & then be rewarded by the federal government.” He says this is an example of a “backroom deal.” If the plea is approved, all of the work done towards the case and justice for Arbery is “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”
William “Roddie” Bryan, the third man convicted of shooting Arbery, was not mentioned in the court filings for the plea deal. He recorded the video and is in prison without possible parole.
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