Calling it "disrespectful", the parents of Ahmaud Arbery are denouncing a plea deal that would have prevented Travis McMichael's federal trial on hate crime charges.
The deal with the U.S. Justice Department would have also allowed McMichael's sentence to be served in a federal prison instead of state prison.
Arbery's mother Wanda Cooper Jones urged U.S. District Court judge Lisa Wood to reject the deal saying a state judge had given Travis and his father Greg McMichael exactly what they deserved.
After Wood rejected the plea deal for 36 year old Travis, lawyers for his 66 year old father requested more time to determine whether to change their not guilty pleas to guilty.
The next hearing is set for Friday. Jury selection in their hate crimes trial is scheduled to begin Monday, February 7, 2022.
The McMichaels were sentenced to life without parole on November 24, 2021, for the murder of Arbery. The 25 year old black man was jogging through a neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23, 2020, when he was chased and killed. Neighbor William Bryan was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole and must serve 30 years.