Professor Bruce Green and co-author Dennis Aftergut wrote an op-ed for NBC News that examines prosecutorial misconduct and the indictment of the former prosecutor in the case against Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers.
The successful prosecution of Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers this month almost didn’t happen. And that leaves us focused on something unusual in the world of accountability for prosecutors: the indictment in September of Jacqueline Johnson, the former district attorney in Georgia’s Brunswick Judicial Circuit. A grand jury indicted Johnson on multiple charges related to allegations about her actions as the first prosecutor presented with the crime committed by Travis McMichael, his father, Greg McMichael, and a neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan.
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Prosecutors’ frequent failures to charge police officers with killing Black civilians echo this problem.
Our justice system is grappling with how to hold prosecutors accountable for the consequences of their biases — conscious or unconscious. Even when they knowingly abuse their authority and derail legitimate investigations, they can escape professional liability.
Courts oversee the professional discipline of lawyers, and they have, on occasion, sanctioned prosecutors for conflicts of interest, dishonesty or prejudicing the administration of justice. But such discipline has historically been infrequent. Limited resources available to courts’ disciplinary arms may partly explain why. The excuse of “prosecutorial discretion” can also be used to cover improper motives.