It’s Incredibly Rare for a Grand Jury to Do What Ferguson’s Just Did | Hacker News Reader

It’s Incredibly Rare for a Grand Jury to Do What Ferguson’s Just Did

fivethirtyeight.com

46 pointsllamataboot7 comments

I hope the events in Ferguson lead to a movement for the vast deployment of police body cameras. Fortunately, some big cities are already considering their use[1]. Evidence, albeit not abundant, suggests that they are quite effective in reducing the number of violent incidents. [2]

[1] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-police-body-came...

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/business/wearable-video-ca...

I believe I heard on some radio news show that it is very rare for that particular prosecutor's office to go to a Grand Jury for a case like this. They almost always make the prosecute/not-prosecute decision themselves.

That makes me wonder if the prosecutors had concluded that there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute, but didn't want to be the ones to deliver that message. Hence, they took the case to the Grand Jury to let them be the ones to do so.

I doubt the prosecutor had a choice. Grand juries are generally there as a constitutional check on the power of prosecutors, and so prosecutors are required to get an indictment for charges of a certain kind.

Disclaimer: This case was handled according to Missouri state law, about which I know little.

Apparently Missouri has a very broad self-defense law which would have made conviction extremely difficult.

From [1]:

"...as long as there is a modicum of evidence and reasonable plausibility in support of a self-defense claim, a court must accept the claim and acquit the accused. The prosecution must not only prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime, but also disprove a defendant’s claim of self-defense to the same high standard."

Although, I feel like the law would not be applied symmetrically... (if Brown had shot Wilson several times and claimed it was because Wilson threatened him).

[1] http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119157/darren-wilsons-con...

I found more on this, in a story from St. Louis Public Radio [1].

In Missouri, the prosecutor has two paths available.

• The prosecutor can decide that there is probable cause and charge the defendant, and the defendant then gets a preliminary hearing before a judge in open court. The judge decides whether or not there is sufficient evidence to justify a trial.

• The prosecutor can present the case to a grand jury, and the grand jury decides whether or not there is probable cause.

[1] http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/whats-different-about-gr...

The headline says it's incredibly rare, then the second paragraph says that while it's incredibly rare for civilians to not be indicted, it's normal for COPS to not get indicted. So in other words, business as usual, questionable racial implications, and an exploitative clickbaity headline.

Thanks for posting this. If nothing else, at least we're looking at the data and having a discussion about it. :(

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