Former Prosecutor Indicted For Coverup of Ahmaud Arbery Killing: Read It For Yourself

How does a group of men feel so brazen as to hunt down, pursue, and kill someone like Ahmaud Arbery in broad day light and video the whole thing in what can rightfully be described as a modern-day lynching?

They thought they could get away with killing Ahmaud Arbery because they knew all the right people to get the story right:

The Washington Post:

A grand jury on Thursday indicted a former Georgia prosecutor over her handling of Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting, on allegations she helped shield men now charged with murder in a case that went for months without arrests.

Ex-Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson is accused of violating her oath of office and obstructing police after the Black man’s death in February of 2020. A viral video of White men chasing and shooting 25-year-old Arbery drew comparisons to a lynching, sparking public demands for accountability and also accusations of a coverup by local authorities. Arbery soon became a rallying cry in a massive racial justice movement ignited by the murder of George Floyd as protests sought justice in high-profile killings of Black Americans.

Thursday’s indictment says Johnson showed “favor and affection” to suspect Greg McMichael, who was previously an investigator in her office, and also failed to “treat Ahmaud Arbery and his family fairly and with dignity” when she sought help from another district attorney — now also under investigation — who argued the shooting was justified before recusing himself.

Johnson is also accused of obstructing law enforcement by directing that Greg McMichael’s son, Travis McMichael, should not be arrested, “contrary to the laws” of Georgia.

“From my perspective, this is historic,” said an attorney for Arbery’s family, Lee Merritt, who said the criminal charges stand out among many cases he has handled.

“We rarely see — and I’ve never seen — accountability for a prosecutor who interfered in an investigation,” Merritt said.

Johnson, whom voters ousted last fall, could not immediately be reached for comment, and it is not clear if she has a lawyer. She has denied wrongdoing in Arbery’s case.

Violation of oath for a public officer is a felony carrying a sentence of one to five years, while obstructing and hindering a law enforcement officer is a misdemeanor carrying a sentence of up to 12 months, according to the Georgia attorney general’s office, which said it presented evidence to a Glynn County grand jury over multiple months.

The McMichaels and a neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, are set to face trial on murder charges this fall. They also face federal hate-crime charges, accused of racially profiling Arbery as he jogged through the Satilla Shores neighborhood of coastal Brunswick, Ga. Prosecutors have portrayed the men as vigilantes, and Bryan, who filmed the fatal confrontation on his phone, told investigators that Travis McMichael used the n-word after shooting Arbery, a claim McMichael’s lawyers deny.

The defendants argue they pursued Arbery in the belief he was behind break-ins and acted in self-defense. Video captured Arbery and Travis McMichael struggling before Arbery is shot.

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said in an interview Thursday evening that she had “a happy moment for once” when Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr called to tell her about the indictment. “I do think that we will get justice,” she said.

For my on part, I stand by every word of this I wrote about the Ahmaud Arbery case in June of 2020 when the testimony at the preliminary hearing for the McMichaels laid bare just exactly what had happened, and what Jackie Johnson and others were trying so hard to coverup, excuse, and condone.

I don’t use this word lightly–pretty sure I’ve never had to use it in writing before–but let’s call this by the name that it is:

This was a lynching.

You can watch the testimony quoted above here at the 3:19:00 mark, how this was not only not self- defense by the McMichaels, but was self-defense by Arbery after being hunted down.

Give the McMichaels, Bryant, and whoever else is involved the fair trial they are entitled to. But may they get justice, swiftly, for what they did to Ahmaud Arbery: denying him the basic rights of not being hunted down, not struck by a truck, not shot in the chest, and then killed when he had the gall to try and defend himself. They killed him because, in the words of Bryant, they “felt Arbery was trying to escape.” They murdered a black man for not doing what they told him to do, because they assumed he had done something wrong, then stood over his body uttering slurs while Arbery left this life in a pool of his own blood, all because of the McMichaels’ feelings, assumptions, and prejudices.

That’s a lynching. No other word for it.

There is a lot of wicked in the authorities in Brunswick who tried to sweep all this under the rug, excuse it, and justify it. Every single one of them should be brought up on charges as well. The McMichaels and Bryant will stand trial first, but it shouldn’t end there.

To hell with all of them. But since that isn’t in our purview to designate as punishment, because unlike the McMichaels we realize we are not God, we are left to trust the justice system to make this right.

Not sure there is such a thing in this case.

God have mercy on us all for that.

Read the indictment for yourself here:
Ahmaud Arbery