The white man who initiated the neighborhood chase that resulted in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery is asking a federal judge to show leniency when he’s sentenced next week for a federal hate crime conviction.

While Greg McMichael deserves “a substantial period of incarceration,” his defense attorney said in a legal filing, he should be spared a life sentence — though he has already been sentenced to life without parole on a separate murder conviction. McMichael also wants the judge to transfer him to a federal prison so that he avoids serving time for Arbery’s murder in Georgia’s state prison system, which can’t ensure his safety from attacks by other inmates, the lawyer said.