BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) 鈥� The man convicted of murder for shooting withdrew his guilty plea on a federal hate crime charge Friday, electing to stand trial for a second time in the 2020 killing of a Black man that became part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice.
Travis McMichael reversed his plan to plead guilty in the federal case days after a U.S. District Court judge between defense attorneys and prosecutors that was met with passionate objections by Arbery鈥檚 parents.
Asked by U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood for his decision, McMichael said: 鈥淚 withdraw the plea.鈥�
His father, Greg McMichael, in a legal filing late Thursday. Wood said jury selection in the hate crimes trial will begin Monday.
The McMichaels and a neighbor, William 鈥淩oddie鈥� Bryan, were convicted of murder in a Georgia state court last fall and sentenced to . Georgia lacked a hate crimes law at the time of the killing. The U.S. Department of Justice had them indicted on charges that the three white men violated Arbery鈥檚 civil rights and targeted him because he was Black.
The McMichaels armed themselves and chased Arbery in a pickup truck after spotting the 25-year-old man running past their home just outside the port city of Brunswick on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded of Travis McMichael blasting Arbery with a shotgun.
The father and son to a hate crime charge after prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to propose a 30-year sentence that would include a request to transfer the McMichaels from Georgia鈥檚 state prison system to federal custody. The deal would have required the McMichaels to admit to racist motives and forfeit the right to appeal their federal sentence.
Wood rejected the deal Monday after Arbery鈥檚 parents argued that conditions in federal prison wouldn鈥檛 be as harsh. Wood said she ultimately denied the deal because it would have locked her into a specific sentence.
Prosecutors asked the judge to approve the plea deals despite the objections from Arbery's family. Prosecutor Tara Lyons said that attorneys for Arbery's parents had told the U.S. Justice Department that the family wouldn't object.
But Lee Merritt, an attorney for Arbery's mother, said the slain man's family had previously rejected the same terms and 鈥渘o longer wanted to engage鈥� with prosecutors, who "took that as a deferral.鈥�
During the murder trial in state court, defense attorneys argued the McMichaels were justified in pursuing Arbery because they had a reasonable suspicion that he had committed crimes in their neighborhood. Travis McMichael testified that he after Arbery attacked him with fists and tried to grab the weapon.
Russ Bynum, The Associated Press
