A lawyer for Ahmaud Arbery's killer says being sent to a Georgia prison would be a 'backdoor death sentence.' A judge disagreed.

• Travis McMichael, who killed Ahmaud Arbery, was sentenced to life in prison.
• McMichael, his father Gregory, and their neighbor were arrested for the fatal shooting in 2020.

The man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery fears that he'll be killed in a Georgia state prison, where he is set to serve a life sentence.

But a federal judge on Monday denied Travis McMichael's request to be sent to a federal facility instead.

McMichael's lawyer, Amy Lee Copeland, said his image — "including his bright red hair" — has been circulated among inmates at the Georgia prison.

Copeland said sending McMichael to state prison would be a "backdoor death penalty," according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"Even a defendant who is publicly reviled...deserves 8th Amendment protections," McMichael's lawyer told a judge Monday, according to First Coast News investigative reporter Anne Schindler.

US District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood sentenced McMichael to life in prison without the possibility of parole, a sentence on top of his previous life sentence in state court.

Killed in the street

Arbery was out running in his neighborhood outside Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23, 2020 when he was chased and gunned down in the street.

Travis McMichael and his father Gregory — a former police officer — saw the young Black man running in the neighborhood and jumped in a pickup truck, chasing him for five minutes. They were joined by their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, who filmed it.

Travis McMichael testified in court that he and the two other white men confronted Arbery because they believed he was involved in break-ins and trespassing in the area.

McMichael said that when he confronted Arbery, after he attempted to run away from the men, he grabbed the shotgun Travis McMichael had brought with him. Travis McMichael testified that it was at that point that he he shot Arbery. Then he shot him again. He died in the street.

Travis and Gregory McMichael were arrested more than three months later after a video of the shooting — which Bryan had recorded — started to spread online. Bryan was later arrested a few weeks later for his role in the murder.

All three men were convicted in November 2021 of murder and other charges in state court. In February a federal jury found the trio guilty of hate crimes.

Gregory McMichael and Bryan were also sentenced Monday to life in prison on the federal charges.