Judge rejects plea agreement in Travis McMichael's hate crime case


A federal judge on Monday rejected a plea deal for Travis McMichael, one of the men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, on hate crime charges.
McMichael reached an agreement to plead guilty to one hate crime charge, in exchange for prosecutors recommending he serve 30 years in federal prison. After U.S. District Judge Lisa G. Wood rejected the plea deal, attorneys for Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, asked the court for more time to decide whether they should change their pleas to guilty, CNN reports. A hearing is scheduled for Friday.
Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and a third man, William "Roddie" Bryan, were convicted late last year on state murder charges in Arbery's 2020 death, and sentenced to life in prison. Arbery, a Black man, was shot and killed while jogging through a Georgia neighborhood; the McMichaels, who are white, claimed they thought Arbery was a burglary suspect. They chased Arbery in their pickup truck, and Travis McMichael fatally shot Arbery as they struggled over McMichael's shotgun. The McMichaels were followed by Bryan, who recorded some of the altercation on his cellphone.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The McMichaels and Bryan are all facing federal hate crime charges, and a prosecutor told Wood that by accepting the plea deal, Travis McMichael was admitting he killed Arbery and it was due to his "race or color." This did not sit well with the Arbery family. "Please listen to me," Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told Wood. "Granting these men their preferred conditions of confinement would defeat me. It gives them one last chance to spit in my face after murdering my son."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
How global conflicts are reshaping flight paths
Under the Radar Airlines are having to take longer and convoluted routes to avoid conflict zones
-
Zohran Mamdani: the young progressive likely to be New York City's next mayor
In The Spotlight The policies and experience that led to his meteoric rise
-
The best film reboots of all time
The Week Recommends Creativity and imagination are often required to breathe fresh life into old material
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambush
Speed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived
-
Weinstein convicted of sex crime in retrial
Speed Read The New York jury delivered a mixed and partial verdict at the disgraced Hollywood producer's retrial
-
'King of the Hill' actor shot dead outside home
speed read Jonathan Joss was fatally shot by a neighbor who was 'yelling violent homophobic slurs,' says his husband
-
DOJ, Boulder police outline attacker's confession
speed read Mohamed Sabry Soliman planned the attack for a year and 'wanted them all to die'
-
Assailant burns Jewish pedestrians in Boulder
speed read Eight people from the Jewish group were hospitalized after a man threw Molotov cocktails in a 'targeted act of violence'
-
Driver rams van into crowd at Liverpool FC parade
speed read 27 people were hospitalized following the attack
-
2 Israel Embassy staff shot dead at DC Jewish museum
speed read The suspected gunman chanted 'free, free Palestine'
-
Bombing of fertility clinic blamed on 'antinatalist'
speed read A car bombing injured four people and damaged a fertility clinic and nearby buildings in Palm Springs, California