Greg McMichael withdraws guilty plea to hate crime in Ahmaud Arbery death

Greg McMichael initiated a chase that killed Ahmaud Arbery in 2020

Gregory McMichael, the man who initiated the chase that led to the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in 2020, has withdrawn his guilty plea to federal hate crime charges.

The retired Georgia police officer’s decision to withdraw his guilty plea comes days after a US district court judge rejected the terms of a deal Arbery’s parents objected to.

In a legal notice jointly filed with prosecutors, McMichael’s defence attorney said he planned to stand trial for the second time in the case. The jury selection for his second trial will now commence on Monday.

McMichael, 66, his son Travis McMichael, 35 and neighbour William “Roddie” Bryan, were all convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison by a Georgia state court in January.

The three white men were also indicted in US district court on charges of violating Arbery’s civil rights and targeting him for his race.

Travis McMichael, who shot the Black jogger, was scheduled for a plea hearing on Friday to declare if he would go ahead with pleading guilty in the federal case.

The father and son had initially planned to plead guilty to a hate crime charge after prosecutors and defence attorneys agreed on a 30-year sentence, including a request to transfer them to federal custody.

According to the settlement, the McMichaels would have had to admit to their racist motives and forfeit the right to appeal their federal sentence.

However on Monday, US district judge Lisa Godbey Wood rejected the deal after Arbery’s parents objected to it, arguing that the conditions in federal prison wouldn’t be as harsh.

“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,” Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother told Ms Wood.

The judge said she felt “uncomfortable” approving the deal as it would have locked her into a specific sentence.

Arbery, 25, was chased by the armed McMichaels in a pickup truck after they spotted him running past their home just outside the port city of Brunswick on 23 February 2020.

Their neighbour had then joined the chase in his own truck and recorded a video, while Travis McMichael shot Arbery with a shotgun.

During the murder trial, Travis McMichael testified that he had opened fire with his shotgun after Arbery attacked him with fists and tried to grab the weapon.

Their defence attorney argued that the McMichaels were justified in pursuing Arbery because they had a reasonable suspicion that he had committed crimes.