JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery were transferred to state prison Tuesday, according to the Glynn County Sheriff's Office.
Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael and William Roderick Bryan were found guilty of federal hate crimes in February in addition to their convictions for murdering Arbery, in which each received life in prison as a result of Georgia minimum sentencing guidelines.
"This morning, Tuesday, August 23, 2022, a team of Glynn County Sheriff’s Deputies transported Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael and William Roderick Bryan to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, GA, and released them into the custody of the Georgia Department of Corrections,” a statement from Sheriff Neal Jump said.
A judge denied the McMichaels' request to serve their time in federal custody.
Travis McMichael's attorney, Amy Lee Copeland, filed a motion asking the judge to keep him in federal custody for fear he'd be killed in state prison.She said Travis had received more than 1,000 death threats.
Attorneys for the U.S. Government argued 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.
Arbery, a Black man, was shot and killed on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020 while he was jogging through a south Georgia neighborhood when he was accosted by a white father and son.
His death didn't gain national attention until months later in May, when a graphic cell phone video showing that deadly encounter surfaced online.
From there, his life and death would leave a profound impact on the state of Georgia and the nation at large.