Greg McMichael, one of three men convicted of murder and federal hate crimes for their roles in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, was moved recently to Augusta State Medical Prison.
Online records from the Georgia Department of Corrections indicate McMichael, 67, was transferred to the medical prison from Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison. He had been at the diagnostic prison since August 2022.
Augusta State Medical Prison provides “centralized acute, specialized medical and Level IV mental health services for male and female offenders primarily as transient” while also housing inmates with severe medical cases, the Georgia Department of Corrections website states.
The medical prison will be McMichael’s permanent prison home, said Joan Heath, director of public affairs for the Georgia Department of Corrections.
“Once offenders complete the diagnostic process at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, they are moved to their permanent housing assignment based on their individual diagnostic evaluation,” Heath said.
She did not elaborate on what prompted McMichael’s medical prison assignment.
McMichael’s attorney in a federal hate crime trial, A.J. Balbo, filed a motion Aug. 1, 2022, shortly before his sentencing asking for McMichael to serve his sentence in federal prison because of a fear of violence against him in state prison and because of a health record that included a stroke, heart disease and depression.
McMichael was convicted Nov. 24, 2021, in Glynn County Superior Court along with his son, Travis McMichael, 36, and William “Roddie” Bryan, 53 — all three White men from Brunswick — of killing Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man from Brunswick.
The three chased the unarmed Arbery in pickup trucks as Arbery jogged through their neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020.
Travis McMichael ultimately shot Arbery with a 12-gauge shotgun.
The murder sparked widespread national attention.
All three men are serving life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole following their convictions.
The McMichaels and Bryan were also convicted on Feb. 22, 2022, of federal hate crimes for their roles in Arbery’s murder. The McMichaels were sentenced to life in federal prison with the understanding their state sentences would be served first.
Bryan was sentenced to 37 years in federal prison to run concurrently to his state sentence.
Travis McMichael and Bryan are both still listed in online Department of Corrections records as being held at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison.
