BRUNSWICK, Ga. — New mugshots of Ahmaud Arbery's killers have been released after they were booked into a Georgia state prison in late August.
Glynn County deputies dropped off William Roddie Bryan, Gregory and Travis McMichael at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison on Aug. 23, 2022, more than two years after Arbery's killing in February of 2020. The facility is in Jackson Georgia, which is in Butts County. It's about four hours from the Glynn County Detention Center, where the three men have been since their May 2020 arrests.
They were sentenced earlier this year in Arbery's murder. A judge sentenced the McMichaels to life without parole and Bryan was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
Right now, state prison officials are considering their medical history, educational needs and drug and alcohol history, among other things, to decide where the three men will move permanently. That process takes about two weeks.
The three were also found guilty of federal hate crimes after a jury ruled they targeted Arbery because he was Black.
The McMichaels' and Bryan's current facility is the largest state prison in Georgia, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. According to the DOC, it can house almost 2,500 inmates.
It also houses the state's death row inmates and conducts executions.
The three men fought to serve their time in a federal facility a request that was denied by Wood. Their representation argued that their lives would be in danger in a state facility, citing an ongoing Department of Justice investigation into conditions in Georgia prisons. The judge denied the request.
At the hate crimes trial, Travis McMichael's attorney, Amy Lee Copeland, said Travis has received more than 1,000 death threats. Copeland argued the Department of Justice is investigating Georgia state prisons regarding keeping inmates safe from other inmates. She said if Travis was brought to a state facility, she worries he "faces a backdoor death penalty."
Copeland said she sees the irony in worrying that Travis faces "vigilante justice," but said even he deserves 8th Amendment privileges.
Copeland said if they couldn't get full federal custody, she wanted Travis to be in federal custody for a few years as a "cooling off period."
Attorneys for the U.S. Government said while they want to keep all inmates safe, including Travis, he shouldn't get special treatment and get plucked from the state system and moved to a federal facility.
