Gregory McMichael, convicted in Ahmaud Arbery murder, moved to medical prison
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on January 18, 2023
(AUGUSTA, Ga.) — Just around five months after being booked into a state prison, Gregory McMichael, one of three men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery, has been moved to a new facility.
McMichael has been moved from Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, where he was booked on Aug. 23, 2022, to Augusta State Medical Prison, according to a recent listing by the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Although this facility is sometimes used as a holding facility when inmates are transitioning to a new facility, it is also used for medical reasons.
“Once offenders complete the diagnostic process at Ga Diagnostic & Classification Prison, they are moved to their permanent housing assignment based on their individual diagnostic evaluation, as is the case with offender McMichael,” said Joan Heath, Georgia DOC Office of Public Affairs director, in a statement to ABC News.
“The diagnostic process is routine for all offenders entering the GDC. Specific details of diagnostic evaluations are part of an offender’s institutional file and are not subject to disclosure,” the statement continued.
It is uncertain at this time if the move was prompted due to medical conditions.
McMichael’s attorney A.J. Balbo mentioned his client’s age and health problems, including a stroke and depression, after the hate crime sentencing.
Augusta State Medical Prison “houses severe medical cases,” according to the Georgia DOC, and offers “centralized acute, specialized medical and Level IV Mental Health services for male and female offenders primarily as transient.”
McMichael was sentenced to life without parole in November 2021 along with his son Travis McMichael, the man who fatally shot Arbery. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
Last August, the McMichaels were again given a life sentence after being found guilty of federal hate crimes. Bryan was sentenced to an additional 35 years.
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