Prosecutor Who Allegedly Hindered The Investigation Of Amhaud Arbery’s Murderers Goes On Trial

Shortly after the mur­der, it became appar­ent that Gregory McMichael’s con­nec­tions to law enforce­ment and the dis­trict attorney’s office had cre­at­ed a con­flict of inter­est. Rather than recuse her­self prompt­ly and allow for an impar­tial inves­ti­ga­tion, Jackie Johnson report­ed­ly took actions to shield Gregory McMichael. Allegations sur­faced that she instruct­ed police offi­cers not to arrest the sus­pects on the day of the mur­der and that she sought to influ­ence the case to pro­tect McMichael, using her author­i­ty to sway inves­tiga­tive decisions.
This inter­fer­ence delayed the pur­suit of jus­tice. For weeks, the case lan­guished with­out arrests, despite clear video evi­dence of the bru­tal killing. It was not until the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) took over the case in May 2020 — fol­low­ing pub­lic out­cry and nation­al media atten­tion — that the McMichaels and Bryan were arrest­ed and charged. The delay was wide­ly per­ceived as a mis­car­riage of jus­tice and a reflec­tion of sys­temic bias.

The Case for Indicting Jackie Johnson

Jackie Johnson’s actions were not mere­ly uneth­i­cal; they appear to have vio­lat­ed her legal duties as a pub­lic offi­cial. By inter­fer­ing with the inves­ti­ga­tion and fail­ing to recuse her­self in a time­ly man­ner, she arguably obstruct­ed jus­tice. In 2021, Johnson was indict­ed on charges of vio­lat­ing her oath of office and obstruct­ing law enforce­ment. The charges stem from her alleged direc­tion to police not to arrest Gregory McMichael and her attempts to influ­ence the out­come of the case.
 Johnson’s indict­ment sent a pow­er­ful mes­sage: pub­lic offi­cials must be held account­able when they abuse their posi­tions of pow­er. The jus­tice sys­tem relies on the prin­ci­ple that no one is above the law, and Johnson’s alleged actions under­mined this prin­ci­ple by pro­tect­ing a for­mer col­league rather than pur­su­ing jus­tice for Ahmaud Arbery.

Broader Implications

The case also high­lights sys­temic issues with­in local law enforce­ment and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al prac­tices. The reluc­tance of local offi­cials to act under­scores the impor­tance of inde­pen­dent over­sight and account­abil­i­ty mech­a­nisms, such as the role played by the GBI in this case. It also under­scores the need for reforms to pre­vent con­flicts of inter­est and ensure that jus­tice is admin­is­tered impar­tial­ly, regard­less of an individual’s con­nec­tions or status.
In con­clu­sion, Jackie Johnson’s indict­ment was a nec­es­sary step toward restor­ing faith in the jus­tice sys­tem and address­ing the fail­ures that allowed Ahmaud Arbery’s killers to evade account­abil­i­ty for so long. Her alleged actions, along with the inac­tion of oth­ers, delayed jus­tice and deep­ened the tragedy for Arbery’s fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty. This case serves as a stark reminder of the crit­i­cal impor­tance of integri­ty and account­abil­i­ty in pub­lic office.

However, it was not only Johnson, whom I per­son­al­ly believed was crim­i­nal­ly cul­pa­ble; I also believe the pros­e­cu­tor from the neigh­bor­ing coun­ty, George Barnhill, may have also com­mit­ted crim­i­nal acts to pro­tect the father and son mur­der team.
Below is a video and a link to an arti­cle I did dis­cussing the ins and outs of the cor­rup­tion as I saw it then, even as much of the con­ver­sa­tion was cen­tered on the killing itself.

https://​mike​beck​les​.com/​w​h​y​-​a​r​e​-​c​o​p​s​-​r​e​s​p​o​n​s​i​b​l​e​-​f​o​r​-​t​h​e​-​v​i​d​e​o​-​r​e​l​e​a​s​e​-​o​f​-​a​h​m​a​u​d​-​a​r​b​e​r​y​s​-​e​n​c​o​u​n​t​e​r​-​n​o​t​-​p​r​o​s​e​c​u​t​ed/

Jackie Johnson is accused of direct­ing police not to arrest one of the sus­pects and show­ing “favor and affec­tion” to anoth­er. Ms. Johnson has pre­vi­ous­ly denied any wrong­do­ing in her han­dling of the case. The Georgia attor­ney gen­er­al’s office indict­ment claims Ms. Johnson “know­ing­ly and will­ful­ly” hin­dered police offi­cers from arrest­ing sus­pect Travis McMichael, It also alleges that Ms. Johnson showed “favor and affec­tion” to Travis’ father, Gregory McMichael, a for­mer dis­trict attor­ney employ­ee. In the indict­ment, Jackie Johnson also failed to treat Mr. Arbery and his fam­i­ly “fair­ly and with dig­ni­ty” by not dis­clos­ing she had sought the help of anoth­er dis­trict attor­ney, George Barnhill.

Those of you who both­er to take the time to read or lis­ten to the con­tent on this medi­um will recall that I have con­sis­tent­ly point­ed out that though police are the actu­al killers, pros­e­cu­tor’s offices and judges are equal­ly as guilty of the cor­rupt racism; plagu­ing American policing.

As a con­se­quence of Jackie Johnson’s con­duct, police did not charge the McMichaels until the shoot­ing gained wide­spread atten­tion and sparked nation­wide protests. Jackie Johnson was vot­ed out of office lat­er that year after the nation­al uproar over the case.
In the mean­time, I will con­tin­ue to shine a light on the pros­e­cu­tors who not only shield cor­rupt, mur­der­ous cops but hin­der full and trans­par­ent inves­ti­ga­tions into their crim­i­nal conduct.

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The Trial of Prosecutor Jackie Johnson begins in a Georgia court­room this week five years after the killing of the inno­cent Amhaud Arbery. We will keep an eye out and report on this impor­tant case in a time when lies and injus­tice has tak­en over dis­card­ing moral­i­ty truth and justice.