Ahmaud Arbery: Lawmakers, NAACP want Waycross, Brunswick district attorneys out of office

GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating whether prosecutors mishandled the Ahmaud Arbery case.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr requested the GBI investigate district attorneys Jackie Johnson and George Barnhill, the first two prosecutors in the case.

There are also calls by some Georgia lawmakers and the NAACP for Gov. Brian Kemp to remove Johnson and Barnhill from office and that they be charged with obstruction with justice.

Arbery was killed on February 23 and no arrests were made until two months later, when video of the shooting was released.

The case was first handled by Johnson in Brunswick; she turned it over to another district because one of the suspects in the shooting, Gregory McMichael, had previously worked for her.

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Barnhill, the district attorney of Waycross, decided no arrests would be made.

After the release of the video, the GBI ordered the arrests of Travis and Gregory McMichael. Cobb County district attorney Joyette Holmes is now handling their prosecution.

Lawmakers and the NAACP want Barnhill and Johnson out of office.

They are asking for House Bill 426 to be amended and renamed the Ahmaud Arbery hate crime law and to get rid of citizens arrests in Georgia.

Both Johnson and Barnhill are now the focus of an investigation into possible misconduct.

Johnson has not responded to interviews for calls to resign, but her lawyer is asking for commissioners to retract statements that she told police not to make an arrest -- the attorney says that is false.

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