Voters oust original DA who led Ahmaud Arbery investigation
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Voters oust original DA who led Ahmaud Arbery investigation
GEORGIA NEWS| Updated Nov 4, 2020
By Tim Darnell, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Voters in coastal Georgia ousted District Attorney Jackie Johnson, who headed up the Ahmaud Arbery shooting investigation earlier this year.
Independent Keith Higgins defeated Johnson, a Republican, 66%-34%.
No Democrat had qualified for the race, meaning Johnson was initially without opposition for another four-year term in the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, a southeast Georgia jurisdiction that includes Appling, Camden, Glynn, Jefferson Davis and Wayne counties. Higgins qualified for the ballot after more than 6,500 signatures were verified on his petition.
He only needed 3,526 after a judge cut signature amounts required statewide because of COVID-19.
Johnson was first appointed to the office in 2010.
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Read more: https://www.ajc.com/news/voters-oust-da-who-led-ahmaud-arbery-investigation/7B3CN4MCWVGIFM3E3IQJFA7WYY/
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Source: Washington Post
Georgia DA criticized for handling of Ahmaud Arbery investigation ousted by voters
By Jaclyn Peiser
11/5/2020, 6:27:27 a.m.
As the local district attorney, Jackie Johnson was one of the first people Georgia police called in February to help the investigation into the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger chased and then fatally shot by a White former police officer and his son in Brunswick, Ga. But Johnson had a problem: She knew one of the suspects and would have to recuse herself.
It took Johnson three days, though, to report her conflict of interest — and her conduct in the meantime led to widespread criticism, an ongoing state investigation into her actions, and an independent challenger filing to oppose the Republican prosecutor.
On Tuesday, voters ousted Johnson, electing former prosecutor Keith Higgins by 5,000 votes, according to the Brunswick News, after a campaign that hinged on the accountability of the district attorney in police declining to charge Arbery’s killers for months.
“We overlook our local races,” Dwight Jordan, a local educator and activist who helped rally voters to vote out Johnson, told The Washington Post in October. “We can’t afford to do that anymore.”
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/05/georgia-district-attorney-ahmaud-arbery/
