A judge Tuesday set an early 2025 trial date for a former Georgia district attorney charged with interfering with the police investigation into the killing of Ahmaud Arbery,
Jury selection in the criminal misconduct trial of Jackie Johnson is scheduled to begin Jan. 21 in coastal Glynn County, according to an order by Senior Judge John R. Turner. He set a Dec. 11 hearing for attorneys to argue their final pretrial motions.
Johnson was the county’s top prosecutor in February 2020 when Arbery was fatally shot on a residential street as he ran from three white men chasing him in pickup trucks. While Arbery’s pursuers argued they mistakenly believed the 25-year-old Black man was a criminal and that he was shot in self-defense, all three were later convicted of murder and federal hate crimes.
Johnson recused her office from handling the killing because the man who initiated the deadly chase, Greg McMichael, was a retired investigator who had worked for her. His son, Travis McMichael, had shot Arbery at close range with a shotgun. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the pursuit and recorded graphic cellphone video of the shooting that leaked online more than two months later.
Johnson was voted out of office months later, a loss she blamed largely in outrage over Arbery’s killing. In September 2021, a grand jury indicted her indicted her on a felony count of violating her oath of office and a misdemeanor count of hindering a police officer.
