In January 2025, approximately two hundred people crowded into a Glyn County courtroom as jury selection began for the trial of former prosecutor Jackie Johnson.
Jackie Johnson served as district attorney when Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was chased by three white men in pickup trucks and fatally shot on a residential street. Johnson’s misconduct trial will be held in the same courthouse where Arbery’s assailants were convicted of murder in 2021.
Greg McMichael, a retired investigator for Johnson’s office, started the pursuit with his son Travis McMichael on Feb. 23, 2020, after Arbery ran past his home just outside the port city of Brunswick. Travis McMichael killed Arbery with a shotgun at point-blank range as a neighbor who joined the chase, William “Roddie” Bryan, recorded the shooting on his cellphone. The men later said they wrongly suspected Arbery was a thief. In the current trial, prosecutors say she abused her office by trying to shield the McMichaels, who along with Bryan avoided arrest for more than two months until the shooting video leaked online.
The judge dismissed about two dozen potential jurors, including a man who said the prosecution of Johnson “smells like a witch hunt to me” and another who had written that most attorneys “seem like egotistical jerks and are arrogant.”
Pretrial Rules and Hearings
Discovery, one of the most important pretrial processes, is very predictable in car crash, divorce, and other civil cases. But discovery is very unpredictable in criminal cases, at least for the most part.
A prosecutor’s obligation to timely deliver exculpatory evidence to a Marietta criminal defense lawyer may be the biggest exception.
In a landmark case (1983’s Brady vs. Maryland), the Supreme Court ordered prosecutors to give defense lawyers all exculpatory evidence in their possession before trial.
The Supremes didn’t specifically define key words and phrases, specifically “before trial” and “exculpatory.” Usually, exculpatory evidence includes:
- Possible alibi witnesses,
- Chemical tests that produced negative, inconclusive, or other favorable results,
- Officer disciplinary records,
- Statements of fact witnesses that remembered the event differently, and
- Internal memos concerning prosecutorial motivations (e.g. “We’ve got to convict this guy no matter what”).
Individual jurisdictions define “before trial” differently. However, regardless of the timeline, the state must turn over this evidence soon enough for a Marietta criminal lawyer to incorporate such evidence into the defensive strategy.
Speaking of prosecutorial misconduct, certain arguments are off-limits during bench and jury trials, mostly appeals to racial or other prejudice.
Additionally, during pretrial or pre-plea hearings, judges rule on procedural issues, witness qualifications, and other evidence challenges.
Procedural issues include illegal stops or arrests (Fourth Amendment) and illegal interrogations (Fifth Amendment). DUI roadblocks often involve both procedural issues.
At DUI checkpoints, officers can detain motorists not according to what they’ve done wrong, but according to their position in a line of vehicles. This power is only available if officers strictly observe all checkpoint rules. If they suspect criminal activity, before they interrogate suspects, they must give them a chance to exercise their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.
Witness issues generally include lack of recall and qualification as an expert witness. Fact witnesses must have some independent recall of an event. They cannot recite what someone else told them or rephrase an official report. Experts, like chemical test experts, must be duly qualified as such.
Types of Trials
We mentioned the two kinds of available trials (bench and jury) above. Now, let’s break them down a little further.
Bench trials often conclude in two or three hours, even in complex cases. The judge serves as legal referee during the proceedings and as fact finder after the lawyers finish. Because they don’t last very long, many judges hear two or three, or more, bench trials per day. Therefore, the waiting list is much shorter.
Aside from the speed factor, predictability may be the biggest advantage of a bench trial. No one knows what a jury may do. But most lawyers can guess, based on the past, how a judge may rule.
Juries are unpredictable mostly because, despite instructions to the contrary, they often make emotional or compromise decisions.
Jurors may dislike an arrogant, egotistical jerk and transfer that dislike to the state or defendant. We’ve run into more than a few arrogant and egotistical jerks in our day.
As for compromise decisions, we’ll tell a war story. We once defended a man accused of murder. The evidence was purely circumstantial. After deliberating, the jury convicted the man and sentenced him to probation, which was almost certainly a compromise verdict.
Jury trial unpredictability may be an asset in some cases. Jurors may exonerate defendants who are legally guilty based on the aforementioned emotional reasons. Even an “unfair” verdict is difficult to challenge on appeal. The mere fact that the case is going to trial means that guilt or innocence is usually a toss-up.
Trial Alternatives
Agreed pleas, slow pleas, and open pleas are the most common trial alternatives. These trial alternatives resolve over 95 percent of criminal cases. Usually, a Marietta criminal defense lawyer prepares for pleas and trials the same way. For example, if the judge rules a key witness cannot testify in an aggravated assault case, prosecutors are usually willing to reduce the charges to ordinary assault, or more likely something lower.
Agreed plea bargain negotiations resemble used car purchase negotiations. The dealer sets a high asking price, and the buyer makes a lower counteroffer. Then, the two sides meet somewhere in the middle.
We mentioned preparation above. If Dave points out that the car’s transmission needs a $500 repair, the dealer normally knocks at least $500 off the price. Similarly, a legal or factual weakness in the state’s case makes the job of a Marietta criminal defense lawyer much easier.
Slow pleas combine jury trials and agreed pleas. The defendant pleads guilty and asks a jury to determine punishment. Slow pleas are often effective if the defendant has no legal or factual defense, but mitigating circumstances exist (e.g. Paul was the lookout during a bank robbery in which a guard was killed).
An open plea is usually a last resort. As mentioned, an experienced Marietta criminal defense lawyer can often predict how a judge will rule in certain situations. So, if plea negotiations break down, throwing yourself on the mercy of the court may be a good alternative.
The criminal law process has many twists and turns. For a free consultation with an experienced Marietta criminal defense lawyer, contact The Phillips Law Firm, LLC. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we start working for you.
