By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — More than 200 potential jurors were summoned Tuesday to a Georgia courthouse to face questions about whether they can serve impartially in the trial of a former prosecutor accused of meddling with police as they investigated the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
Jackie Johnson served as district attorney when Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was chased by three white men in pickup trucks and fatally shot on a residential street. Johnson’s misconduct trial will be held in the same courthouse where Arbery’s assailants were convicted of murder in 2021.
The threat of winter weather is causing delays. Senior Judge John R. Turner said he plans to adjourn early Tuesday ahead of forecast snow showers. He also canceled court Wednesday, when local schools will be closed because of expected snow of ice.
Officials summoned a large pool of potential jurors given the notoriety of Arbery’s killing and Johnson’s public profile during her decade as the top prosecutor in coastal Glynn County.
Superior Court Clerk Rebecca Walden said her office mailed out jury duty notices to 500 people. More than 200 had filled out and returned juror questionnaires, she said. Some others were excused from jury duty, or their mailings were returned as undeliverable.
Potential jurors will be asked what they’ve read or heard about Arbery’s killing and the case against Johnson, and whether they’re able to serve as impartial jurors. Walden said she suspects it could take a week to select a jury of 12 members plus alternates.
Greg McMichael, a retired investigator for Johnson’s office, started the pursuit with his son Travis McMichael on Feb. 23, 2020, after Arbery ran past his home just outside the port city of Brunswick. Travis McMichael killed Arbery with a shotgun at point-blank range as a neighbor who joined the chase, William “Roddie” Bryan, recorded the shooting on his cellphone. The men later said they wrongly suspected Arbery was a thief.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office is prosecuting Johnson. Prosecutors say she abused her office by trying to shield the McMichaels, who along with Bryan avoided arrest for more than two months until the shooting video leaked online.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation then took over the case from local police. All three men were arrested, convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. They were also found guilty of federal hate crimes in a separate 2022 trial.
Johnson was indicted in September 2021 on a charge of violating her oath of office, a felony punishable by one to five years in prison, and a misdemeanor count of hindering police as they investigated Arbery’s death. The indictment says Johnsons showed “favor and affection” toward Greg McMichael and interfered with police by “directing that Travis McMichael should not be placed under arrest.”
Johnson has denied wrongdoing, insisting she immediately handed the case to an outside prosecutor because of her connection to Greg McMichael. She was voted out of office in November 2020, a defeat she largely blamed on controversy over Arbery’s death.
