Even though a witness captured footage of the moments leading up to the shooting and the Glynn County Police Department obtained the video the same day, suspects Gregory and Travis McMichael weren't arrested until Thursday, May 7, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has reported. Following the agency’s involvement, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr requested that two different Georgia district attorney offices be investigated for “possible prosecutorial misconduct” in the Arbery case.
Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself from the case because Gregory McMichael used to work as an investigator in her office, but she didn’t do so before involving Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Barnhill. His son worked in the same office, and Barnhill only recused himself from the prosecution after attempting to tilt the scales in the McMichaels’ favor. He wrote in his recusal letter that the Arbery family “are not strangers to the local criminal justice system,” according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“From best we can tell, Ahmauds [sic] older brother has gone to prison in the past and is currently in the Glynn jail, without bond, awaiting new felony prosecution,” Barnhill added. “It also appears a cousin has been prosecuted by DA Johnson's office.”
Without even knowing about those specifics, Arbery’s mother initiated the push for Barnhill’s recusal, Merritt told reporters. The family is also asking the Department of Justice to consider hate crime charges. They suspect that William "Roddie" Bryan, the man who filmed the moments leading up to Arbery’s death, helped corner him with the McMichaels because Arbery is Black.
Page Pate, a Brunswick criminal defense attorney who isn’t involved with the case, told the local news station News4JAX it’s important to remember that because Georgia no longer has a hate crime statute, federal hate crime charges are the family’s only option regarding that aspect of the case. "And what federal prosecutors would have to show is not just that the crime occurred but that it was motivated by some unlawful purpose relating to racial prejudice, sexual orientation [...]," Pate told the news station.
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