GUILTY GA - Ahmaud Arbery, 25, jogger, fatally shot by former LEO and son, Brunswick, Feb 2020 *Arrests* #6

[BeckyF]

<modsnip: broken quote> @Handyman
RSBBM

You are absolutely correct. The GBI prosecuted the case because the DA showed preference to the defendants.
Former DA indicted after allegedly 'showing favor' to men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery (nbcnews.com)

A former Georgia district attorney was indicted Thursday by a grand jury, which said she showed preference to the men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery last year.

The former prosecutor, Jacquelyn Lee Johnson, was indicted on charges of violation of oath of public officer and obstruction of a police officer, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced. Johnson was the Brunswick Judicial Circuit district attorney when Arbery, 25, a Black man, was shot in February 2020. Johnson ultimately lost re-election in November.


Arbery was shot and killed on Feb. 23 after Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, his son, followed him in their pickup. Arbery’s family has said he was out jogging, while the McMichaels, who are white, said they thought he was a burglar.

Ahmaud Arbery in a family photo.Courtesy of family
Johnson recused herself from the case days after the shooting. She noted that Gregory McMichael, a former Glynn County police officer, had been an investigator in her office for more than 30 years before he retired in May 2019.

Johnson now accused of "showing favor and affection to Greg McMichael during the investigation," according to the indictment document released Thursday. She also is alleged to have hindered two police officers "by directing that Travis McMichael should not be placed under arrest."

The indictment also alleges that Johnson sought help from Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney George E. Barnhill, whom she recommended to take the case after she stepped aside, without disclosing her previous conversations with Barnhill.

Barnhill recused himself in April and defended the McMichaels in his letter, stating to the police captain at the time that the father and his son had "solid first hand probable cause" to believe Arbery was a burglar.

No further details about the allegations were released. Carr’s office said it will continue to investigate.

Johnson did not immediately return a voicemail requesting comment Thursday.

“Former DA Johnson may not have pulled the trigger on the day Ahmaud was murdered, but she played a starring role in the cover-up,” attorney Ben Crump said Friday.

Crump and Lee Merritt, the family's attorneys, held a virtual news conference with Arbery’s mother and father, Wanda Cooper and Marcus Arbery Sr.

Merritt said he hopes the charges against Johnson have a “ripple effect throughout the legal community” to stamp out systemic racism, adding that her alleged actions amplified a system stacked against Black people.

Recommended

 

[Cool Cats]

Unlike Kyle Rittenhouse, Travis McMichael 'didn't come off as credible,' experts say

Travis McMichael sealed his fate when he took the stand in his own defense...

But Travis McMichael “really didn’t come off as credible,” criminal defense attorney Bernarda Villalona said on NBC News.

“From Travis McMichael’s own mouth, he knew Ahmaud Arbery was not armed; he knew Ahmaud Arbery didn’t threaten him; he knew Ahmaud Arbery didn’t have anything in his pants,” she said. “The only threat here was two pickup trucks chasing an unarmed African American male.”

"Travis McMichael was a horrible witness," said former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. "Rarely have I seen a defendant who's put on the stand by his defense team really perform so poorly."

Travis McMichael said he grabbed his shotgun and got into the driver’s side of his truck. Gregory McMichael was in the passenger seat. The two men drove in the direction they believed Arbery had run and eventually caught up with him.

"If you are the first aggressor, then you really have an uphill battle convincing a jury that you have a right to take the life of another," Kirschner said. "Travis McMichael was the first aggressor, the third aggressor, the fourth aggressor, and, ultimately, these three men anointed themselves judge, jury and executioner of a young man who was doing nothing but running in a part of town that apparently offended the McMichaels and Mr. Bryan."

Travis McMichael's testimony was a "train wreck for him," Kirschner added. "He should have been convicted."

 

[Cool Cats]

Travis McMichael testifies he misspoke to police after killing Ahmaud Arbery

McMichael, one of three white men on trial for Arbery's death, had told the jury a day earlier that Arbery was grabbing his shotgun at the end of a five-minute chase, so he fired in self defense. On Thursday, he conceded that he told police that day that he could not say for sure whether Arbery actually grabbed it.

McMichael said the accounts he gave of the shooting to police initially were "choppy" because he was nervous and under stress. He at times misspoke to police, he said, or "had it wrong" in his statements made soon after the shooting on Feb. 23, 2020, in Satilla Shores in coastal Georgia.

"I just killed a man," he said. "I had blood on me still. It was the most traumatic event of my life."

McMichael told jurors on Wednesday that while he and his father and co-defendant, Gregory McMichael, were chasing Arbery in their pickup truck, Arbery "turned and ran" when the younger McMichael told him the police were on their way.

In cross-examination by prosecutor Linda Dunikoski on Thursday, McMichael agreed that he did not explicitly mention such a moment in a police interview the afternoon of the shooting, nor include it in a written statement he made that day. He later conceded that his father had not called the police while they were pursuing Arbery.

"You're telling this jury you're all confused and you can't get your facts straight when you're telling the police why you shot and killed a man?" Dunikoski asked.

"I've never been through a situation like that," he said.

The younger McMichael said he tried to be calm when calling out to Arbery during the chase and used polite language including "please."

Dunikoski contrasted this with the threatening language McMichael's father used, according to his accounts to police.

Quoting from one of the police interviews, Dunikoski asked the younger McMichael if he heard his father shout at Arbery: "'Stop or I'll blow your head off?'"

McMichael said he did not recall hearing that.

 

[ilovewings]

I think forums like this one in particular, which is so heavily and unabashedly pro-law enforcement, do need to remember that LE was an active hindrance in this case. The verdict that was reached today happened in spite of LE, not because of it. The McMichaels, with their close connections to LE, had every institutional advantage and leaned on those advantages heavily all throughout the process. In fact, they brought about their own undoing by taking a video and releasing it, so sure were they that they were in the right and were going to be vindicated by LE. On its own, LE wasn't going to do a thing.

I hope people remember that they next time they start gushing praise for LE. Let's be a little bit more measured in our estimation of some of these institutions.

So frighteningly true-- I am sure the defendants were in shock when they heard "guilty"- from the moment they hunted down and shot "that black man running down the street" to hearing the guilty verdict, these three men, bolstered by their local law enforcement and even local prosecutors, felt they did nothing wrong.

 

[sds71]

"Today is Thanksgiving and I'm really, really thankful. My family and I are really, really thankful for the verdict we got yesterday," Wanda Cooper-Jones told ABC News' Whit Johnson in an interview Thursday on "Good Morning America."

When asked whether she had a message for the three defendants, Cooper-Jones replied: "I would simply tell them that their bad decisions have impacted two families -- my family and again their family."

"Not only did the McMichaels lose a son, they lost a grandfather and they will be impacted by his grandchild," she said. "I lost a son, but they lost three generations there."

Ahmaud Arbery's mother speaks out after murder trial verdict: 'I'm really, really thankful' - ABC News (go.com)

 

[Niner]

Don't forget they are facing Federal charges as well. Martin Savage reported jury selection is scheduled for Feb.

Here's the Federal court hearing schedule:

Motions hearing 12/20/21 @ 11am

Pretrial hearing on 1/21/22 @ 10am

Trial begins on 2/7/22 with jury selection @ 9am

just an FYI!

 

[ilovewings]

Here's the Federal court hearing schedule:

Motions hearing 12/20/21 @ 11am

Pretrial hearing on 1/21/22 @ 10am

Trial begins on 2/7/22 with jury selection @ 9am

just an FYI!

Thank you for that info!

 

[Cryptic]

This just verdict happened because of several facts:

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over from the good ol boy police department - If they had not intervened this day would not have occurred

Very good point.

Hopefully, the original prosecutor will face malfeasance 0r misfeasance charges soon. Likewise, the GBI needs to investigate whether those charges could apply to some of the investigating officers as well. In the end, public officials who put ideology before their duties need to face concequences.

It does not matter whether their wildly favorable reviews involve self defense claims made by certain defendants- or they allow obviously dangerous and wanted felons to walk out of jail on $1,000 dollar bonds.

 

[Jax49]

Very good point.

Hopefully, the original prosecutor will face malfeasance 0r misfeasance charges soon. Likewise, the GBI needs to investigate whether those charges could apply to some of the investigating officers as well. In the end, public officials who put ideology before their duties need to face concequences.

It does not matter whether their wildly favorable reviews involve self defense claims made by certain defendants- or they allow obviously dangerous and wanted felons to walk out of jail on $1,000 dollar bonds.

Former Georgia district attorney booked on charges of obstructing Ahmaud Arbery case

 

[clearskies1]

It shouldn't be so hard. Thankful for good people doing the right thing.

 

[clearskies1]

Good article:
How a shaky cellphone video changed the course of the Ahmaud Arbery murder case

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/24/arbery-video-conviction/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https://s2.washingtonpost.com/car-ln-tr/355f9e0/619fbd999d2fdab56b9f5e8f/5d4f2100ae7e8a0f8020e6c4/8/72/619fbd999d2fdab56b9f5e8f

 

[ReadySet]

Happy Thanksgiving.

I am so glad some measure of justice was given for Armaud.

Thank you to the posters who explained the case, and made it easier to understand.
You are good teachers.

 

[Cryptic]

Former Georgia district attorney booked on charges of obstructing Ahmaud Arbery case

Great news regarding criminal charges.

BAR revocations are administrative and thus do not need to be based on a conviction. I hope they move on BAR discipline with out waiting for the criminal trial.

 

[Cool Cats]

Three Georgia Men Charged with Federal Hate Crimes and Attempted Kidnapping in Connection with the Death of Ahmaud Arbery

Travis and Gregory McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan, were each charged with one count of interference with rights and with one count of attempted kidnapping.

The McMichaels were also charged with using, carrying, and brandishing—and in Travis’s case, discharging—a firearm during a crime of violence.

FEDERAL INDICTMENT

Download Indictment.pdf

 

[joe jones]

in the federal case the full extent of their racism will be revealed as they are charged because they went after AA because he was black, as we knew from the state trial, but it was only alluded to in the state trial, in federal court everything will be revealed,

 

[Cool Cats]

in the federal case the full extent of their racism will be revealed as they are charged because they went after AA because he was black, as we knew from the state trial, but it was only alluded to in the state trial, in federal court everything will be revealed,

Racist language allegedly used by Travis McMichael. Travis McMichael used racial slurs on social media and in a text message.

"Mr. Bryan said that after the shooting took place, before the police's arrival, while Mr. Arbery was on the ground, that he heard Travis McMichael make the statement: 'F---ing n-----," Agent Richard Dial said.

Travis's 2020 Confederate flag license plate.

Why Are Ahmaud Arbery’s Killers So Scared?

Fear is more than just a way to argue self-defense—it’s the racist dog whistle that’s been present throughout this trial.

Their defense positions the McMichaels and Bryan as both victims and defenders. They were threatened by “rising crime,” so they went out and defended the neighborhood. They were “threatened” by Arbery, so they had to kill him. They are “threatened” by Black pastors, so they try to bar them from the court. They are “threatened” by Arbery’s mom’s tears, so they ask for a mistrial.

 

[GarAndTeed]

I think you're intentionally choosing to focus on one possible meaning of my statement without considering the whole context. Local LE did not want to charge these men and went out of their way not to do so. Left to their own devices, nothing would have happened.

Heck, one of the previous prosecutors is now under indictment for her handling of this case. Prosecutors are 100% part of the law enforcement system. It is absolutely a fact and demonstrably true that LE was an active hindrance in this case.

Here's a link to a discussion on the above info:

 

[Laughing]

"Today is Thanksgiving and I'm really, really thankful. My family and I are really, really thankful for the verdict we got yesterday," Wanda Cooper-Jones told ABC News' Whit Johnson in an interview Thursday on "Good Morning America."

When asked whether she had a message for the three defendants, Cooper-Jones replied: "I would simply tell them that their bad decisions have impacted two families -- my family and again their family."

"Not only did the McMichaels lose a son, they lost a grandfather and they will be impacted by his grandchild," she said. "I lost a son, but they lost three generations there."

Ahmaud Arbery's mother speaks out after murder trial verdict: 'I'm really, really thankful' - ABC News (go.com)

This lady is a class act!!! Thank you, Ma'am, and stop by for coffee any time.

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[IzzyBlanche]

But you would have loved NZ. They are on their second female Prime Minister.

I'm sure I would! Jacinda is a bad ! But I'm afraid of earthquakes.

 

[Cool Cats]

I think you're intentionally choosing to focus on one possible meaning of my statement without considering the whole context. Local LE did not want to charge these men and went out of their way not to do so. Left to their own devices, nothing would have happened.

Heck, one of the previous prosecutors is now under indictment for her handling of this case. Prosecutors are 100% part of the law enforcement system. It is absolutely a fact and demonstrably true that LE was an active hindrance in this case.

You posted:

I think forums like this one in particular, which is so heavily and unabashedly pro-law enforcement, do need to remember that LE was an active hindrance in this case.

I hope people remember that they next time they start gushing praise for LE. Let's be a little bit more measured in our estimation of some of these institutions.

In my post I was agreeing with you that local LE dropped the ball - hindered the case - but that the

Georgia Bureau of Investigation did not drop the ball, they did a praise worthy job.

No one is "gushing praise" for the local Brunswick LE agency that told Ahmaud's mother her son was killed in a robbery.