Plea Deal Rejected by US judge in Ahmaud Arbery Murder Case

BoomRadioNG | February 1, 2022

A US judge has rejected a plea deal between federal prosecutors and two of the three white men convicted of murdering black jogger Ahmaud Arbery.

District Judge Lisa Wood said she was not willing to be bound to the clause that allowed them to serve time in a federal, and not state, prison.

Her ruling comes after Travis McMichael admitted for the first time race was his motivation for chasing Arbery.

Arbery’s mother was said to be “devastated” about the deal.

Ahmaud Arbery

Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother, vehemently rejected the notion of a deal as she said it was “about serving time in a safer, less crowded prison” since it recommended the McMichaels be transferred to a federal prison for 30 years before returning them to the custody of the Georgia prison system for the rest of their lives.

Federal prisons are generally perceived as less brutal environments than typical state prisons.

Cooper-Jones told the court ; “Please listen to me: granting these men their preferred conditions of confinement will defeat me. It gives them one last chance to spit in my face after murdering my son,”

“The state of Georgia already gave these men exactly what they deserve. Please leave it that way.”

Paul Ayorinde