A Georgia judge has thrown out a felony case against former Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson who was on trial accused of hindering the police investigation into the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
He was the Black jogger chased and killed by three white men on Feb. 23, 2020 — but no arrests were made until more than two months later after video of the crime came out. The case was among those that sparked a national racial justice outcry that year.
Johnson was facing a felony charge of violating her oath of office. But Senior Judge John R. Turner agreed with her defense attorney that the indictment should be dismissed on a technical flaw.
Judge Turner offered sympathetic words to members of Arbery's family as he tossed out the case, saying he will never understand why Arbery's killers were not arrested sooner.
Johnson testified in her own defense Tuesday that she never sought to shield Arbery's killers from arrest. One of them, Greg McMichael, had previously worked as an investigator in her office. Johnson admitted speaking with him several times in the days and weeks after Arbery was killed, but denied offering him help. She said she told him her office was not going to be involved.
Johnson had immediately recused herself from the case, and asked a neighboring DA, George Barnhill, to advise Glynn County police. She said she didn't see video of the killing until was leaked months later, and thought it showed a murder.
Neighbors Greg McMichael, his son Travis, and William "Roddie" Bryan mistakenly assumed Arbery was a thief and chased him with pickup trucks before Travis McMichael shot Arbery point blank three times with a shotgun. The men are all serving life prison sentences on murder, kidnapping and hate crime convictions.
Prosecutors with the Georgia state attorney general's office had already suffered a major setback on Monday when Judge Turner dismissed a second, obstruction charge, saying there was "not one scintilla of evidence" that Johnson interfered with police. That ruling came after an assistant police chief had testified that she had never spoken with Johnson about the case. Prosecutors never called as a witness another officer who was cited in the indictment.
Leaving the courtroom, Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper Jones said "the law is the law," according to the Atlanta Journal -Constitution. "But this was a win for us, because we got to find out what really went on." Initially Arbery's family was told he was killed in self-defense.
In a statement, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said his office had fought to ensure justice was served. "We stand by the case we presented, and we regret that the Jury won't get to decide."
Johnson's defense lawyer, Brian Steel, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment.
Johnson lost her re-election as DA in Nov. 2020, in part due to community outrage over the way the Arbery case was handled.
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