BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA - JANUARY 07: Travis McMichael, left, speaks with his attorney Jason B. Sheffield, center, during his sentencing, alone with his father Greg McMichael and neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan in the Glynn County Courthouse, on January BRUNSWICK, Ga. - The man convicted of murder for shooting Ahmaud Arbery withdrew his guilty plea on a federal hate crime charge Friday, electing to stand trial for a second time in the 2020 killing of a Black man that became part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice.Travis McMichael reversed his plan to plead guilty in the federal case days after a U.S.
District Court judge rejected terms of a plea deal between defense attorneys and prosecutors that was met with passionate objections by Arbery's parents.
Asked by U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood for his decision, Travis said: "I withdraw the plea." His father, Greg McMichael, backed down from a plan to plead guilty in a legal filing late Thursday.
Wood said jury selection in the hate crimes trial will begin Monday.The McMichaels and a neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, were convicted of murder in a Georgia state court last fall and sentenced to life in prison.