Ex-DA Jackie Johnson Jailed For Obstructing Ahmaud Arbery Case

You had one job! Girl, go to jail and then go to hell!

Source: Megan Varner / Getty

True justice would be a world where Ahmaud Arbery is at home enjoying the holidays with his loved ones. However, former district attorney of Glynn County Jackie Johnson thought only the white men who killed him deserved that kind of freedom and safety. BOSSIP previously reported in September that Johnson was criminally charged with obstruction for showing favor to Arbery’s killers and delaying their arrest for months.

In a bittersweet twist of fate, CBS News reports that Johnson was booked into the Glynn County Detention Center on Nov. 24, the exact same day that Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan were convicted of murdering Arbery for jogging while Black. She turned herself into the Glynn County Sheriff’s office after a grand jury indicted her for charges of obstruction and violating her oath as a public officer. She was released from jail the same day on her own recognizance without paying the posted $10,000 bail.

Source: Glynn County Sheriff’s Office / Handout

Johnson’s failure to bring any charges in the case was so blatantly biased that Republican Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr investigated her office for misconduct and alleges that she used her position to help the killers avoid prosecution. Greg McMichael previously worked as an investigator in the District Attorney’s office for decades until he retired in 2019. He spent nine of those years serving under Johnson, who was the top prosecutor at the time of the fatal shooting last year. According to the indictment, Johnson failed “to treat Ahmaud Arbery and his family fairly and with dignity.” She is also accused of “knowingly and willfully” instructing officers not to arrest Travis McMichael for killing Arbery with his shotgun,

Bryan, a neighbor of the father and son, joined them in hunting down Arbery and captured a cellphone video of the chase and murder. No arrests were made in the case until May 7 after the horrific video surfaced online, causing the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to take over the case. Johnson must have really made these rancid racists feel like they were teflon because Greg McMichaels leaked the footage himself.

The former DA claims she did nothing wrong because she recused herself and handed over the case to Waycross District Attorney George Barnhill, but the indictment states Johnson never disclosed that she had already consulted him on the case and he had already been in contact McMichael. The audacity of caucasity really is unbelievable! Johnson faces up to five years for violating her oath of office and one year for the misdemeanor obstruction charge.

No bail posted, an hour in jail, and a maximum of six years still sounds like a slap on the wrist for someone who covered up a malicious murder in broad daylight that was caught on camera. It’s not surprising that local activist Travis Riddle told First Coast News back in September that Johnson’s misconduct “goes deeper than Ahmaud.”

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, right after Johnson took office in 2010, she helped clear police officers of savagely shooting and killing Caroline Small, an unarmed mother of two accused only of “erratic driving.” Perhaps there needs to be a thorough investigation into all of the cases that crossed her desk in the decade between the Small and Arbery cases.

The three convicted killers are expected back in court in February 2022 when their trial for federal hate crime charges begins.