Judge to seat jury in trial of ex-prosecutor accused of shielding Ahmaud Arbery's killers
Judge to seat jury in trial of ex-prosecutor accused of shielding Ahmaud Arbery's killers
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Jury selection is set to conclude Tuesday in the criminal misconduct trial of a former Georgia prosecutor charged with interfering in the police investigation of the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery. White men with guns and pickup trucks chased and fatally shot the running Black man on a neighborhood street after they wrongly suspected he was a thief. The man who started the deadly pursuit had worked for the local district attorney.
Now that prosecutor, former District Attorney Jackie Johnson, has returned to court as a criminal defendant, charged with violating her oath of office, a felony, and a misdemeanor count of hindering police as they investigated Arbery's killing. Johnson has denied wrongdoing, saying she immediately handed the case to an outside prosecutor.
Senior Judge John R. Turner planned to seat a jury Tuesday morning at the Glynn County courthouse in the port city of Brunswick. Jury selection began a week ago but was delayed by a rare winter storm that left the coastal community coated in snow and ice.
Opening statements from prosecutors and defense attorneys were scheduled for later Tuesday after a 12-person jury plus two alternate jurors are seated. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr's office is prosecuting the case. The judge said he expects Johnson's trial to last two weeks or more. It's being held at the same courthouse where Arbery’s assailants were convicted of murder in 2021.
Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and chased the 25-year-old Arbery in a pickup truck after seeing him run past their house on Feb. 23, 2020. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery with a shotgun at point-blank range.
