Originally reported by: The Brunswick News
Former Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson speaks to her legal team Tuesday at the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick during the first day of jury selection in her trial on charges of obstruction and violation of her oath of office. Jury selection resumed Friday.
Photo: Michael Hall / The Brunsick News
One of the men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 may testify in the trial of former Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson, who is accused of obstruction and violating her oath of office for allegedly interfering with the investigation of the killing.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the case against Johnson questioned two panels of 20 jurors on Friday.
It was the second day of jury selection in the trial after a two-day break caused by Winter Storm Enzo.
Before questioning each panel, attorneys read potential witness lists to see if any of the potential jurors knew the witnesses. The lists included several current and former prosecutors in the Brunswick Judicial Circuit and elsewhere, several Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents, local police officers and current and former elected officials, among others.
A few jurors raised their hands to say they knew various potential witnesses, but none raised their hands to say they knew potential witness Greg McMichael, one of the three men who were tried and convicted of murder for chasing Arbery in pickup trucks and shooting him dead in the Satilla Shores neighborhood in south Glynn County in February 2020.
McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, who pulled the trigger and killed Arbery, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan are serving life sentences for their roles in Arbery’s death.
Each was also convicted of hate crimes in federal court. The three men are White. Arbery was Black and unarmed.
All three are appealing their hate crime convictions and are seeking new trials in Superior Court.
State Attorney General Chris Carr’s office, which is prosecuting the case against Johnson, claimed in a pretrial motion that Johnson spoke to Greg McMichael, a former investigator for Johnson in the DA’s office, 16 times between the day of the shooting and May 5, 2020.
Johnson is accused in a 2021 Glynn County Grand Jury indictment of instructing county police investigators at the scene via cellphone not to arrest either of the McMichaels. The indictment further accuses Johnson of colluding to divert the case to then Waycross Circuit District Attorney George E. Barnhill after she recused herself. Barnhill had already expressed his opinion that the shooting was in self defense, Carr’s office contends.
Johnson has maintained her innocence and in a pretrial motion sought to dismiss her indictment because the allegations against her were “untrue, unforgivable and unsupported by any fact whatsoever in this case.”
She claimed in another motion that GBI and FBI special agents investigated and did not find that Johnson hindered the investigation or any arrest in Arbery’s death.
Greg McMichael was one of dozens of potential witnesses prosecutors and defense attorneys asked the jury abou’ Other locally notable names were former Glynn County Police Chief John Powell, current Glynn County Commissioners Allen Booker and Wayne Neal, former Glynn County Commissioner Peter Murphy, and former Glynn County Manager Alan Ours, among others.
Deputy Attorney General John Fowler and defense attorneys Brian Steel and Keith Adams asked questions of potential jurors to glean more information about their opinions and ability to be impartial after reading questionnaires provided to them prior to jury selection. Many of their questions centered on people’s knowledge of the case, their opinions on prosecutors and defense attorneys, their experiences managing and supervising employees and their experiences working with rules and regulations.
Some potential jurors — a retired pharmacist, a retired dock builder and a nurse, to name a few — said they had extensive experience working with state and federal regulations. The pharmacist, a White woman, said regulations in her field are important and she made sure to follow them. Others had mixed feelings about regulations that governed their professions.
“They’re a necessary evil,” the retired dock builder, a White man, said. He also said in his questionnaire that he would welcome sitting on the jury.
“I’m retired and I don’t have anything else to do,” he told Fowler.
Other people, as in Day 1 of jury selection, expressed their reservations about serving on such a high-profile case. The trial of the men convicted of killing Arbery garnered international attention and the case against Johnson has continued to grab headlines as well.
All three attorneys asked potential jurors about their familiarity with both the Arbery case and the case against Johnson. Steel pointed out an answer on a questionnaire to one juror in which the person indicated he thought that Arbery’s family deserved justice.
“I believe that too,” Steel said. “Does that have anything to do with Jackie’s case?”
The potential juror, a White man, said he could remain fair and impartial if chosen for the jury.
So far 22 jurors have been qualified.
Senior Judge John Turner of the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit wants to qualify 39. The final jury will consists of 12 jurors and three alternates.
Jury selection in the case will continue on Monday at the Glynn County Courthouse. Attorneys in the case indicated the trial could last as long as two-and-a-half weeks.