In court on Wednesday, a former Georgia district attorney made her first appearance since being accused of favoring the defendants charged with the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger who was chased and killed in a predominantly white coastal area in 2020.
Jackie Johnson was the district attorney for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit at the time and ultimately recused herself because one of the defendants was a former investigator in her office. She was indicted more than a year later on charges of violating her oath of office and hindering an investigation. She lost her bid for reelection two months later.
Among other items in the indictment, Johnson was accused of telling law enforcement on the scene not to arrest the man who pulled the trigger on Arbery, Travis McMichael, the son of her former investigator. The arrests of the three defendants were ultimately made by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation with no involvement by local police or prosecutors.
As she tried to have the case dismissed, prosecutors presented evidence that she communicated with her former investigator, Gregory McMichael, 15 times about the case, including after she recused herself.
McMichael, his son, and neighbor William Bryan Jr. were convicted on a variety of charges, including federal hate crime charges. Bryan filmed the chase and shooting, and the footage shows Travis McMichael shooting the unarmed jogger with a shotgun after blocking him with his truck.
All three were convicted in November 2021 on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment, with Travis McMichael convicted on an additional count of malice murder. The father and son were sentenced to life without parole, while Bryan was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
In early 2022, the three men were found guilty on federal charges of attempted kidnapping and hate crime/interference with rights. The McMichaels were convicted of an additional federal count of using firearms in a crime of violence.
Johnson appeared in court on Wednesday for a pretrial hearing, according to The Current. The trial itself, expected to begin next month, was delayed largely because her defense attorney, Brian Steel, was tied up with a trial for another client, Jeffrey Williams, the Atlanta rapper known as Young Thug, who recently pleaded no contest to firearms and other charges and was sentenced to time served and 15 years probation.
Steel argued in court that Johnson was not really paying attention to the Arbery case because she was hyperfocused on the prosecution of a former Glynn County police chief and his drug unit on corruption charges. The Georgiia Supreme Court dismissed those charges earlier this year.
Steel also told the court he wanted to call Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who plans to run for governor, as a witness in the case. Carr ultimately transferred prosecution of the case to the Cobb County District Attorney’s office in light of the allegations made against Johnson and other coastal prosecutors.
Wednesday’s hearing saw both sides in the case preview the type of evidence and witnesses they intend to present in the trial.
