To be filed under: He fucked around and found out.

Lawyer: Arbery shooter fears he'll be killed in state prison

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP)

The white man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery after chasing the running Black man in a Georgia neighborhood says he fears he will be killed by fellow inmates if he's sent to a state prison to serve a life sentence for murder.

Travis McMichael, 36, faces sentencing Monday in U.S. District Court after his conviction on federal hate crime charges in February. His defense attorney filed a legal motion Thursday asking the the judge to keep McMichael in federal custody.

Attorney Amy Lee Copeland argued McMichael has received "hundreds of threats" and won't be safe in a Georgia state prison system that is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department amid concerns about violence between inmates.

On Feb. 23, 2020, McMichael and his father, Greg McMichael, armed themselves with guns and jumped in a pickup truck to chase Arbery after he ran past their home just outside the port city of Brunswick. A neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, joined the chase in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael blasting Arbery with a shotgun.

The killing of Arbery became part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice amid other high-profile killings of unarmed Black people including George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.

In Georgia, the McMichaels and Bryan were sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of Arbery's murder in a state court last fall. They have remained in a county jail in custody of U.S. marshals.

In Georgia, the McMichaels and Bryan were sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of Arbery's murder in a state court last fall. They have remained in a county jail in custody of U.S. marshals since standing trial in February in federal court, where a jury convicted them of hate crimes. Each defendant now faces a potential second life sentence.

Once the men are sentenced Monday by U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood, protocol would be to turn them over the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve their prison terms for murder.

That's because they were first arrested and tried by state authorities.

For Travis McMichael, "his concern is that he will promptly be killed upon delivery to the state prison system for service of that sentence," Copeland wrote in her sentencing request. "He has received numerous threats of death that are credible in light of all circumstances."

[Source]