Trial For Former DA Who Tried To Help Ahmaud Arbery’s Killers To Finally Begin In January

Source: Glynn County Sheriff’s office / Glynn County Sheriff’s Office

UPDATED: 2:40 p.m. ET, Dec. 13 —

Jackie Johnson, the former Georgia district attorney who was charged with illegally interfering in the 2020 police investigation of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, made her first court appearance on Wednesday, according to AP.

Prosecutors have accused Johnson of using her position of power to protect Greg and Travis McMichael and urging police not to arrest Travis after he fatally shot  25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery.

During the pretrial hearing, defense attorney Brian Steel claimed Jackie Johnson “Didn’t know what was going on with Ahmaud Arbery’s case” because she was focused on trying to indict a high-profile police chief at the time of the murder.

Prosecutors pushed back in the court files, referencing more than a dozen phone calls between the Johnson and Greg or Travis McMichael in the days and weeks after the shooting. Greg McMichael also left Johnson a voice message the day Arbery was killed, according to AP.

In September 2021, Jackie Johnson was indicted by a grand jury on a felony count of violating her oath of office and a misdemeanor count of hindering a police officer.

Her trial was been postponed for over a year due to her lawyer’s involvement in the Young Thug racketeering case.

Jury selection and her trial are scheduled to begin on Jan 21st.

 

In 2021, nearly two years after Ahmaud Arbery‘s shocking killing in Brunswick, Georgia, a jury has found the three men responsible for his death guilty of felony murder.

Father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael and their friend William “Roddie” Bryan were all shown on video actively participating in Arbery’s killing on Feb. 23, 2020, in the middle of a street in broad daylight. The verdict is effectively a referendum and accountability for the racist and vigilante shooting that bore all the hallmarks of a modern-day lynching.

MORE: America, Is That You? Just 1 Black Juror Selected In Murder Trial For Ahmaud Arbery’s Killers

Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump issued a statement that expressed cautious relief, but not joy.

“Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. After nearly two years of pain, suffering, and wondering if Ahmaud’s killers would be held to account, the Arbery family finally has some justice,” Crump said in part. “Nothing will bring back Ahmaud, but his family will have some peace knowing the men who killed him will remain behind bars and can never inflict their brand of evil on another innocent soul. While today is not one for celebration, it is one for reflection.”

The defendants’ respective lawyers were unable to get jurors to believe a far-fetched premise that relies on an archaic citizen’s arrest law rooted in slavery that has since been repealed.

The trial’s start got underway just one day after a decidedly non-diverse jury was set in a case that centers on race.

In theory, the jury is supposed to be made up of one’s peers. But the question was “whose peers?” after 11 white people and just one Black person ended up on the panel.

Testimony concluded after an extended version of the video of Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael killing Arbery while he was jogging through the neighborhood of Brunswick. Arbery’s father was too emotional to watch and left the courtroom before the video was played. His mother wept and sobbed throughout the entire video.

Also during the trial, Cobb County Assistant District Attorney Linda Dunikoski testified that Greg McMichael told police he told Arbery to stop or he’d “blow his f***in head off.”

She also told the court that Mr. Arbery tried to run away from Greg and Travis McMichael for fives minutes as they chased him down.

During the fourth week of the trial, testimony from a long list of witnesses will continue. Police officers, GBI Investigators, as well as neighbors of the defendants will all take the stand.

Defense Attorneys will try to prove that the two men acted appropriately and focus their case around self-defense.

Georgia’s old citizen’s arrest statute was overhauled by Gov. Brian Kemp in May, but the defense test the boundaries on what’s considered appropriate self-defense.

Keep reading to find scenes from the murder trial and learn more about the people involved.

Bookmark this page. We will be updating this story as the trial continues.