Over 300 Georgia attorneys demand prosecutors once involved in Ahmaud Arbery case resign

More than 300 Georgia lawyers are calling for the former district attorneys who were involved with Ahmaud Arbery’s case to resign.

According to CBS 46, the attorneys and several civil rights groups signed an open letter demanding that Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson and Waycross District Attorney George Barnhill step down from their positions due to the way they handled the suspects involved in Arbery’s death.

“It shocked me to see that there were two district attorneys in South Georgia — in Waycross and Brunswick — who I felt weren’t doing what they took their oath to do,” said attorney Chris Richardson, who signed the letter.

“There were a lot of issues in both the actions — in both Barnhill and Jackie Johnson — that we as attorneys needed to speak up and say something about it. And not only that, but the fact that George Barnhill wrote this letter prematurely exonerating the McMichaels and in that letter he offered factually incorrect and legally unsound information,” he said. “What I wanted to say with 313 other attorneys across Georgia was enough was enough.”

Back in February, Arbery was fatally shot while jogging through a Georgia neighborhood. The two men who were involved in the shooting — Travis and Gregory McMichael — were not arrested until months later.

The father and son took their weapons and jumped into their truck to follow Arbery. Soon after, there was a struggle over the firearm and he was shot and killed. William Bryan recorded the incident and was later found to be involved.

The three white male suspects were each charged with nine counts: four counts of felony murder, false imprisonment, malice murder, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.

Last month, REVOLT previously reported that the two district attorneys were under FBI investigation for how they mishandled the case, with Johnson been under investigation for nepotism. Prior to the shooting, Gregory worked as an investigator in Johnson’s office before he retired. Barnhill’s son used to work with him as well.

The FBI is investigating whether or not due process was followed by Johnson and Barnhill, who each reported the case as a conflict of interest and requested that it move to another prosecutor.