‘Devastating’: Georgia Judge Throws Out All Charges Against Ex-Prosecutor Accused of Protecting White Father and Son Who Chased Down and Killed Ahmaud Arbery, Outraged Family Speaks Out
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Georgia prosecutors sustained a humbling defeat in court Wednesday as the judge in the Jackie Johnson misconduct case tossed the final remaining charge against the former Brunswick Circuit district attorney accused of obstructing the investigation into Ahmaud Arbery’s killers.
“Frankly, this is a decision I didn’t want to make,” Senior Judge John Turner said in court. But he said the defense’s challenge to the indictment “needs to be granted.”
The felony charge of violating oath of office was vacated after Johnson’s attorneys argued the 2021 indictment was riddled with technical errors that ultimately failed to show she had violated the law.
On Tuesday, Turner dismissed a misdemeanor count of obstructing police after he found “not one scintilla of evidence … that would authorize a verdict on that count.”
Prosecutors from Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office alleged Johnson sought to protect her former chief investigator and longtime friend, Greg McMichael, after he and his son Travis chased Arbery in their pick-up truck, thinking he was responsible for a number of neighborhood thefts.
After a brief scuffle, Travis McMichael fatally shot Arbery, who had been on a run through the mostly white subdivision just outside the city limits of Brunswick. No stolen items were found on his body.
In 2021 the McMichaels were convicted, along with neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, who filmed the father and son chasing Arbery down, of murdering the 25-year-old jogger.
An hour after the shooting, Greg McMichael called Johnson, his former boss, asking for help. Prosecutors alleged that Johnson, despite recusing herself from the case, pulled strings to keep the McMichaels from being arrested at the scene.
Then, the 10-year DA allegedly saw to it that the case was transferred to a neighboring prosecutor, George Barnhill, who had already advised Brunswick police criminal charges against the McMichaels were not warranted.
But Barnhill testified Johnson had no input in his decision. Johnson testified that she never told anyone to shield the McMichaels from prosecution.
“Ahmaud Arbery was slaughtered for no reason, and then Attorney General Carr piggybacked on the greatest tragedy … and indicted an innocent woman,” said Brian Steel, Johnson’s lead defense attorney.
“Jackie was painted as a person who supported racism,” he said. “That’s just totally false.”
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said in a statement through her lawyer, Lee Merritt, that she was “disappointed, though not altogether surprised” by the outcome but was “grateful” Johnson was prosecuted.
“Wanda Cooper-Jones deserved her day in court to confront Johnson and expose her corruption,” the statement continued. “Through her powerful testimony, she forced the world to see how a legal system meant to deliver justice was instead weaponized against her son.”
Merritt said the trial “helped to reveal the institutional racism at work in Glynn County and represented a major step forward after the conviction and two life sentences each of Ahmaud’s assailants received after his unjustifiable murder.”
The prosecution’s strategy has brought on plenty of second guessing. Their own expert witnesses on how district attorneys handle conflicts of interest testified they didn’t see any illegal behavior from Johnson. They were also unable to prove their claim that Johnson instructed two Glynn County police officers not to arrest Travis McMichael.
One of those officers, Stephanie Oliver, told jurors she never discussed the case with Johnson. The second officer wasn’t even called to the stand.
In a statement, Carr said state prosecutors “stand by the case we presented, and we regret the jury won’t get to decide.”
Johnson offered no comment as she left the courthouse.
It’s doubtful her trial would’ve happened if not for Cooper-Jones, who breathed new life into the investigation of her son’s killers when she discovered the close connection between Barnhill and Johnson, who employed Barnhill’s son as a prosecutor. Arbery’s mother made the discovery on her own and asked the elder Barnhill to recuse himself from the investigation, which he eventually did.
Cooper-Jones insisted that, if given the opportunity, the jury would have convicted Johnson.
“The evidence was there,” she said. “We all know that Jackie Johnson played a part in the cover-up of the death of Ahmaud.”
Ahmaud’s father, Marcus Arbery Sr., called the judge’s decision to end the trial “devastating.”
The family has endured three high-profile trials since 2020. They received guilty verdicts against their son’s killers in state and federal court before Wednesday’s disappointing conclusion.
“We must continue to keep the family of #AhmaudArbery lifted in this moment,” Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs posted on X. “We will continue to fight for justice.”
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