Judge in Ahmaud Arbery's Case , Rejects Murderer's Plea Deal.
Judge in Ahmaud Arbery's Case , Rejects Murderer's Plea Deal.
The deal had been agreed upon by federal prosecutors and two of the three defendants convicted of killing Arbery.
Analysts of the U.S. Judge Lisa Wood's rejection of deal say that it came in light of one of the defendants' admission that race played a role in Arbery's murder.
Analysts of the U.S. Judge Lisa Wood's rejection of deal say that it came in light of one of the defendants' admission that race played a role in Arbery's murder.
[Defendant Travis McMichael] made assumptions about Ahmaud Arbery that he would not have made if Ahmaud Arbery had
been white, Text of Plea Agreement, via Reuters.
Federal prosecutors had agreed to allow at least one of the convicted murderers, Travis McMichael, .
to serve the first 30 years of their sentence in federal prison.
The federal prison conditions
in Georgia are considered to be
better than Georgia state prisons.
Judge Wood also acknowledged the words of Arbery's mother, .
who asked the court to block the deal.
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, Wanda Cooper-Jones, Mother of Ahmaud Arbery,
via Reuters.
The state of Georgia already gave these men exactly what they deserve. Please leave it that way, Wanda Cooper-Jones, Mother of Ahmaud Arbery,
via Reuters.
In handing down her decision about on the plea deal,
Judge Wood explained why she could not accept it.
If I accept it, it locks me in to
that sentence, U.S. District Judge Lisa Wood, via Reuters.
Federal plea deals are
rarely rejected by U.S. judges.
All three men are set for trial next week to face federal hate crimes charges
