‘RECUSE’ TWIST
DA with ties to Ahmaud killer: Slay ‘justifiable’
A Georgia prosecutor who recused himself from the Ahmaud Arbery case called it a “justifiable homicide” and sent cops a letter outlining why it wasn’t a crime before bowing out.
District Attorney George Barnhill told police after the fatal Feb. 23 shooting that there was insufficient evidence to charge two white men, Gregory McMichael, 64, and his 34year-old son, Travis McMichael, after they chased Arbery and killed him with a shotgun, according to a statement from the Glynn County Police Department.
“Detectives met with DA George Barnhill Sr. of the Waycross Judicial Circuit the following day and reviewed their findings with him,” said the statement, published by The Brunswick News. “DA Barnhill, Sr. advised the detectives before noon on Feb. 24, that the act was justifiable homicide and for detectives to continue their investigation and provide him with lab reports and any additional information.”
Barnhill recused himself from the investigation on April 6 because his son is a prosecutor in the Brunswick DA’s Office, where Gregory McMichael, a former cop, worked as an investigator.
But Barnhill didn’t bow out until after he received the autopsy report on Arbery’s death and wrote a letter to police explaining why the McMichaels should not be charged.
“In this letter, DA Barnhill Sr. notes, ‘I appreciate there is immediate pressure on your department as to the issue of arrest,’ ” the police statement said.
“DA Barnhill Sr.’s letter makes five points regarding the case and concludes that there was insufficient probable cause to issue arrest warrants at that time.” The case was later turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, a state agency.
After cellphone video of Arbery’s shooting went public this month, the agency arrested the McMichaels on murder charges.
The Barnhill revelation came as the Georgia state attorney general asked the US Justice Department to open a probe into how the case was handled.
Video of the shooting shows the McMichaels block Arbery’s path as he jogs. Travis McMichael then gets out of the truck with a shotgun and the two men struggle. Arbery is shot during the melee, stumbles off and drops to the ground, mortally wounded.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called the incident “a lynching” on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
“It’s 2020 and this was a lynching of an African-American man,” she said. “My heart goes out to the family.
“With the rhetoric we hear coming out of the White House, many who are prone to being racist are given permission to do it in an overt way we wouldn’t see in 2020,” Bottoms added.
Glynn police conceded they did not initially deem it necessary to transfer the case to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation because department cops were not on the force when McMichael was there from 1982 to 1989.