A federal judge has just rejected the plea deal the McMichaels made with prosecutors on the federal hate crime charges, which Arbery’s mother had strongly opposed.
I’m not sure what difference it really makes given that they’re serving life without parole, but apparently they’re lobbying to get into a federal prison which is supposedly less crowded and more comfortable than state prison.
the verdict is in. guilty of all charges in the federal trial.
I’m confused.
So does this mean that they can be / likely will be sentenced to serve lengthy sentences in a federal prison or will they remain in state custody? My understanding is that federal prison was what the McMichaels/Bryan wanted – that was why they tried to take the plea deal earlier in the month in the first place. Aubrey’s family objected to the deal, arguing that federal prison would be too good for them (I have no clue if that’s true, or if federal prison is somehow superior to state prison). So now that they’ve been convicted on the federal charges, are they going to federal prison anyway?
Is this conviction actually a “win” for them?
The article I saw said that even if the state charges are reversed on appeal, they’ll still do time.
So if they’re sentenced to some significant length of time for the federal charges, and the state charges remain in place, do they serve their time in the state or the federal pen?
Aubrey’s mother apparently immediately walked out of the court room without talking to the Federal prosecution. She has been the sole person who, from day 1, assured that justice would be carried out. If the prosecution settled with a deal all the racist texts and evidence wouldn’t have even come out in court to the public.
She has had a degree of strength that is quite unbelievable. When she was asking the Georgia DA why they were blocking any investigation for months the replies given was that her son deserved to be killed or that her entire family were criminals. Its really insane how things were done.
I hope some of these people see prison.
here is a source that has a first convicted first served rule of thumb.
Why did the Feds bother to try these guys; they already had life sentences. Was it in case their state conviction gets overturned? Seems like a waste of resources to ensure they get multiple sentences. Would statute of limitations likely have run out before appeals process completed itself?
Same with CA & Harvey Weinstein. While every (victim) deserves their day in court he basically has a life sentence in NY; what’s the point of prosecuting someone if they’re never going to serve their sentence for it (since he’ll be incarcerated in NY, not for any CA conviction)
Justice is the process, not the sentence served.
From what I’ve read, part of the reason to pursue the federal charges was to present evidence of their racism.
I thought if the judge accepted the brokered plea deal that evidence wouldn’t have come out.
That may be one reason the victim’s family pushed to reject the plea deal.
I haven’t seen that reported, and it would be very unusual. Typically the prosecution could outline all the evidence at sentencing. Perhaps it would get less attention, but honestly the details of their racists texts, etc, haven’t been front page news that I’ve seen.
I did not know, for instance, that they had Confederate bumper stickers on their truck. (There was a person on this board who argued that the victim should just have cooperated with the “citizen’s arrest” but if he saw those bumper stickers, I suspect he would be afraid of what they intended to do with him and it wasn’t just to hold him for the police.)
Certainly more details will come out at trial, which, as you say, might be one reason to object to the plea deal. I’m just saying 1) the crucial details would come out anyway, and 2) for some reason (Ukraine?) the federal trial and its allegations didn’t seem to get nearly the press as the state court case.
I think the bumper sticker came out at the state trial, because it was part of the scene. But not the texts, because the state wasn’t alleging a racial animus.
ETA: there were two Confederate symbols: a confederate flag sticker on a box in one of the trucks, which was visible in the video, and a licence plate displaying the Confederate flag. Both were admitted in the state trial. The image of the sticker was in one of the body cams from the officers, not the video that Bryan took.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/04/us/mcmichaels-hearing-ahmaud-arbery/index.html
I think a lot of it was that they had already been convicted. Not as newsworthy that they were convicted of something else related to the original conviction.
Life sentence for the hate crime:
Does this have any practical implications for these guys? (The others are being sentenced today, I believe, so I’m asking this on the assumption the other two will receive similar sentences.)
For instance, since they now have been sentenced for federal crimes can they request to serve their time in federal prison, which AIUI was something they were lobbying for immediately after their original sentencing? Apparently federal prisons are “nicer,” at least according to these guys.