CNN
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The one-time Georgia prosecutor accused of impeding the investigation into Ahmaud Arbery’s killers is set to stand trial more than four years after the Black 25-year-old’s death, which fueled nationwide protests over racial injustice.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday in the trial of former Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson, who faces charges of violating her oath of office and obstruction stemming from her alleged actions in the weeks after Arbery’s death in February 2020. Three White men were ultimately found guilty on state murder and federal hate crime charges.
One of those men, Gregory McMichael, had previously worked as an investigator in Johnson’s office, and prosecutors have said he asked for her help when his son shot Arbery after they chased him through their neighborhood.
While Johnson recused herself from the case, the Georgia Attorney General’s Office has alleged she failed to handle the case fairly and interfered with investigators, preventing the arrest of McMichael’s son, Travis.
CNN has reached out to Johnson’s attorney for comment. Johnson has in the past denied wrongdoing. At a pre-trial hearing in December, her attorney said Johnson was focused on securing an unrelated indictment and “didn’t know what was going on with Ahmaud Arbery’s case,” the Associated Press reported.
No one was arrested until two months after Arbery was killed, when a video of the shooting emerged.
Arbery’s killing, along with those of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, was a focal point of protests that roiled the country in the summer of 2020.
Opening statements in the trial will follow jury selection. Some 500 Glynn County residents received notice of jury duty – a larger number than usual – as the court worked to seat an impartial panel of 12 jurors plus alternates, according to the AP.
Here’s what we know about the case.
Arbery was shot dead February 23, 2020, after he had gone out for a jog. When they saw Arbery in their neighborhood, the McMichaels – who told police they suspected Arbery in a purported string of burglaries – grabbed guns and pursued him in a pickup truck (Arbery was not accused of committing a crime).
A third man, William “Roddie” Bryan, also joined the pursuit and recorded the shooting on his cellphone.
When that footage surfaced May 5, 2020, it showed Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery after a physical confrontation in which they grappled over McMichael’s shotgun.
The McMichaels were arrested two days after the video surfaced. Bryan’s arrest came two weeks later.
A third district attorney’s office – from Cobb County, in the Atlanta suburbs – was assigned to the case two months after the shooting.
Travis McMichael was found guilty in November 2021 of state charges of malice murder and felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit a felony. His father was found not guilty of malice murder but guilty on the other eight counts.
Bryan was found guilty of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit a felony. He was cleared on the charge of malice murder, felony murder involving aggravated assault with a firearm and the count of aggravated assault with a firearm.
The three men were sentenced to life in prison on the state charges. They were later found guilty of federal hate crime charges; the McMichaels received life sentences and Bryan was sentenced to 35 years.
It was around this time the office of state Attorney General Chris Carr requested the Georgia Bureau of Investigation open an inquiry into prosecutors’ response to Arbery’s killing.
Johnson had recused herself from the case the day after the shooting due to her previous connection with Gregory McMichael. But it wasn’t until February 27, 2020 – four days after Arbery died – that she requested the appointment of a new prosecutor, the AG’s office said.
The office appointed the DA of the neighboring Waycross judicial circuit at Johnson’s recommendation, the indictment says. However, that prosecutor did not disclose the fact he had already told Glynn County Police he did not see grounds for the McMichaels’ arrests, according to the AG’s office.
He, too, would later recuse after revealing his son had once worked on a previous prosecution of Arbery with none other than Gregory McMichael.
The Attorney General’s Office was not aware of the prior communications with Johnson when it appointed the Waycross prosecutor, it said.
Prosecutors have alleged Johnson and Gregory McMichael participated in 16 phone calls in the weeks following Arbery’s death, according to court records, between the day of the shooting and when the video surfaced.
In fact, McMichael called Johnson from the scene of the shooting, asking her advice, prosecutors revealed in a bond hearing for the McMichaels.
“Jackie, this is Greg,” the elder McMichael said, according to a voicemail played in court. “Could you call me as soon as you possibly can? My (inaudible) and I been involved in a shooting and I need some advice right away. Could you please call me, as soon as you possibly can? Thanks. Bye.”
Carr’s office announced a grand jury indicted Johnson on two counts in September 2021: violation of oath of a public officer — punishable by between one to five years in prison – and obstruction and hindering a law enforcement officer, a misdemeanor.
In the first count, the indictment specifically references Johnson’s recusal and recommendation of a new prosecutor without acknowledging she had previously asked for his assistance. The indictment alleges this amounted to a violation of her oath to fairly carry out her duties as district attorney.
The second alleges Johnson “did knowingly and willfully hinder” two police officers, directing them not to arrest Travis McMichael.
By the time she was indicted, Johnson had lost reelection, though she insisted during the campaign she had not acted inappropriately.
“We did what we were supposed to,” she said at a 2020 debate. “The lack of trust has been the result of people with an agenda who have exploited this case and divided our community for their own purposes.”
But as the McMichaels and Bryan stood trial in November 2021, some Black residents in Brunswick said they felt differently. The delay in the investigation and arrests had highlighted – and fueled – a distrust in the local justice system.
“We’re trusting them to be enforcers of justice,” a local pastor told CNN at the time. “And this gross incident happens, and they turn a blind eye.”
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