Feds weighing Arbery case as a hate crime, family lawyer says
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
The U.S. Justice Department is reportedly launching an investigation into the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery as a hate crime.
A lawyer for the slain jogger’s family says a federal prosecutor told Arbery’s mother that federal officials are investigating potential misconduct by local officials who handled the case.
Even though Georgia is one of four states with no hate crime laws, the Department of Justice has the authority to bring federal charges. Attorneys for Arbery's parents and others, including Carr and the Southern Poverty Law Center, had asked for a federal investigation to weigh whether hate crimes charges should be brought.
Lawyer Lee Merritt said U.S. Attorney Bobby Christine met with him and Arbery’s mother Thursday.
A spokesman for Christine declined to confirm or deny whether the meeting happened.
Spokesman Barry Paschal said the office does not comment on active investigations, “including addressing whether or not those investigations exist.”
Arbery, 25, was unarmed when he was killed Feb. 23 after a white father and son pursued the black man after spotting him running in their subdivision just outside of Brunswick. They have said they thought he was a burglar.
With family ties in the Central Savannah River Area, he’s buried near Waynesboro.
Gregory Michael and his grown son Travis were arrested and charged with murder this month.
The case drew national outrage after a video of the shooting was widely circulated and after weeks went by without the McMichaels being charged.
Just last week,
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The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is conducting an investigation into possible misconduct by two DA's offices in connection with the case.
The agency will examine the conduct of the offices of the district attorneys of the Brunswick and Waycross Judicial Circuits.
The probe was requested by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, the GBI said.
Gregory McMichael is a former Glynn County police officer who later worked 20 years as an investigator for the local district attorney's office. He retired a year ago.
Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself from the case because the elder McMichael had worked under her. The first outside prosecutor appointed, District Attorney George Barnhill of the neighboring Waycross Judicial Circuit, stepped aside about a month later because his son works for Johnson as an assistant prosecutor.
Prosecutor Tom Durden got the case in mid-April and was ultimately replaced as prosecutor by
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