Former Georgia district attorney Jackie Johnson went back into the Glynn County courthouse for the start of the jury selection in her trial on Tuesday, almost four years after initially being charged with mishandling the case of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder.
Action News Jax has been following both the murder trial, which gained national attention in 2020, and the charges brought against Johnson since we first told you about them in September 2021.
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At least 500 possible jurors are being considered to serve in Johnson’s trial. Fourteen of them were questioned by lawyers on both sides Tuesday, and 12 of them were excused by the judge after they took the stand. That means, now, only two of those questioned Tuesday will be considered to serve on the jury.
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The lawyers with the state and those defending Johnson asked each of the possible jurors about their personal feelings toward the case, both opinions of Johnson and whether previous news coverage of Arbery’s murder would affect whether they’d be able to effectively serve on a jury. Of the 14 possible jurors, 12 of them said they had the opinion that Johnson was guilty.
Johnson is charged with violating her oath of office as a district attorney and hindering the investigation into Arbery’s murder.
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Arbery was a 25-year-old black man killed by three white men who followed him and shot him to death as he ran through a Glynn County neighborhood in 2020. Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan were arrested, tried, and convicted of murder and federal hate crimes for Arbery’s killing.
After the murder, phone records show Gregory McMichael called Johnson, who was the district attorney in Brunswick, 16 times. McMichael previously worked as an investigator for Johnson, who eventually recused herself from the case and turned it over to a district attorney in Waycross.
The state bar of Georgia still says Johnson is an attorney in good standing. Jury selection is expected to pick up again on Thursday morning and wrap up as soon as the end of the day on Friday.
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