Didn t happen in terms of evidence, that didn t come out in the state case. so we might get more information what surrounded this shooting. outside of that, talking to community leaders in the brunswick area, they believe that first case went very well in terms of the trial, and they want to make sure the community stays calm. they re talking to all the stakeholders, especially the church leaders in this community to make them understand how this progress will go forward, especially with this being federal court, so there ll be no video cameras inside the courtroom like there was last time. boris and christie? ryan young from brunswick, georgia, thank you so much. let s dig deeper now with michael moore. he s a former u.s. attorney for the middle district of georgia. michael, appreciate you getting up bright and early for us. appreciate your perspective. so, both travis and gregory mcmichael withdrew their guilty pleas last week in this federal trial. help our viewers understand what
Cnn s ryan young has more from brunswick, georgia. boris, christie, good morning. there are a lot of questions surrounding this case. of course, the three men who were accused in this crime have already been convicted in state court. now, in federal court, two of the men, the mcmichaels, had decided to plead guilty because they had received a plea deal. that thplea deal was rejected, they pulled back their guilty plea. now you re going to have opening in terms of them trying to find a jury to seat, but they re going to know that there was a plea deal that was almost enacted. that will be interesting to see how they pull that part off. for the ahmaud arbery family, they want justice. i ve just want one word to say. all we want is 100% justice for the arbery family. that s all we re looking for. and god be to glory. reporter: you can understand the family still wants justice in this case. in fact, there are thoughts that in the federal case, there will be things that come out tha
And so if they re going to spend their time in the state system and then have to serve their federal time, which would typically be the requirements, since they were convicted first in the state court, then they decide to move ahead and sort of roll the dice with this trial. tra in the state trial, you ll recall that prosecutors meticulously pieced together a timeline of events that led to ahmaud arbery s murder, but there s additional information that will be presented to the jury in the federal case. walk us through what the federal jury might see that s dicfferen from what the state court saw. this is a different case completely. the question of the murder is not there anymore. that s on tape. and state prosecutors made a decision to move forward without getting into too many elements of motivation. they dmoid not look for racial motivation or present that to the jury. this case hinges on whether or not that racial motivation was part of the reason that mr.
To be the main sticking point was where they would spend their time in jail. as you know, they ve been convicted and sentenced to life without parole. they would serve that in a state prison. but here, it s saying that the deal was struck that they would spend at least 30 years in a federal system. and that didn t seem to be to the judge s satisfaction, which is, of course, her right, as the sentencing judge, so she said, i m not going to accept that nor am i going to be bound by this. you can keep your plea in place, but you re letting me now as a judge make the ultimate decision on the terms of the sentence. so they obviously said after that, we re going to withdrawal and we re just going to go ahead and go to trial. and if you think about it, you know, what did they have to lose? they ve already been convicted and sentenced to life without parole in the mcmichaels case, and mr. brian, of course, to life in prison, in the state system, they ll appeal those convictions. but here, a 30
This federal trial. it s going to be tough to find somebody who has not heard about the case, and that s not the standard, but whether or not they form some opinion about the case. and i think that that s part of the question here. and were those problems, those racial elements and things of jury selection and how the jury was made up, is that going to be an issue that may cause some problems for the state case on appeal? i don t know. but it s certainly something to think about here. i don t know if we ll necessarily have that. you ll have a jury selected throughout the district and i suspect the lawyers will spend great deal of time talking about your feelings about race, you know, what you may have heard about the case, and i expect that you ll probably see a more diverse jury pool. that s not uncommon in federal juries. we will be watching it closely and we hope you ll be nearby to lend us your expertise. michael moore, thank you so much agriculture time. glad to be with yo