Discussion: What We Know Now About Michael Brown's Shooting

Discussion for article #230532

Nothing I’ve heard indicates that the Prosecutor lifted a single finger to actually get an indictment. He went into the procedure reluctantly and with a strong preference to believe everything the cops told him.
Sad. Pathetic. Unjust.

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I don’t have a problem with the fact that the Grand Jury did not return an indictment, but I do have a problem with the way the prosecutor went about this. As a former federal prosecutor, I indicted my fair share of people, and I never did it like this. First, I have never heard of a prosecutor presenting a Grand Jury with a bunch of possible charges and just leaving it up to the Grand Jury to decide which, if any, charges apply. A Grand Jury needs more guidance than that from the prosecutor, and, when a prosecutor actually wants to get an indictment, then the prosecutor provides that guidance. Second, I have never heard of the person who is the target of the indictment testifying before the Grand Jury. I would love to see the transcript of that testimony, because I’m betting there was no genuine cross-examination. I’m betting the officer was simply allowed to tell his story unchallenged by the prosecutor. Maybe there is not enough evidence to indict; I really don’t know. But what I do know is that this prosecutor never intended to get an indictment. They say you can indict a ham sandwich, which is basically true. If so, then this would have to be the most incompetent prosecutor in history, or perhaps the more reasonable explanation is that he wasn’t really trying to get an indictment.

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Has everyone forgotten the big picture here. Michael Brown was a criminal, he had just robbed a store just before his confrontation with Officer Darren Wilson. It would have been just a matter of time before he would kill someone if he wasn’t stopped when he was.

The local officials and media have been preparing for this non indictment long before it was given.

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So, all people who commit a crime eventually kill someone?

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At 11:45 p.m. CT on Aug. 9, Wilson responded to a call at an apartment complex about an infant who was having trouble breathing. At 11:53 a.m. CT,

Huh? What, Wilson was in the apartment for 12 hours?

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I think it is just a matter of time before you kill someone, so would I be justified in killing you now? There is no time when it is appropriate to do that, and it wasn’t appropriate when Wilson did it.

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This was a farce from the beginning. The prosecutor decided to make the grand jury refuse to indict Wilson, so he wouldn’t be blamed for it. So, instead of seeking an indictment, he tried Wilson before the grand jury, and of course they decided he was innocent. But, that allowed the prosecutor to act as Wilson’s attorney, with no judge present to rein him in.

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Flag this bullshit, people. I did.

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“Brown ran and Wilson chased him. Brown then stopped and moved toward Wilson, several more shots were fired and Brown was fatally injured. What happened between the altercation and the fatal shots varied some depending on the witness, McCulloch said.”

This should have been enough to have cause for a trial in my opinion. If Brown ran and Wilson chased him then it’s not a case of self defense. There should have been an indictment and a trial. I think that’s fairly obvious.

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Bob. There’s a video of the supposed “crime” it involved a pack of cigarillos. And Brown may not have stolen them. There’s dispute about that. You calling him a criminal is excessive since he had never been to a trial and convicted. To be a “criminal” one must be convicted in court, not in the court of public opinion. It’s a heck of a leap from a pack of tobacco to you assuming Brown was then gonna kill someone. It seems you’ve been getting your information from Hannity or some other right wing nut.
FYI Bob, here’s the video of your horrible “crime” in which you say Brown was bent on killing someone:

It could be a robbery, or it might be a disagreement about the price of the cigars

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That exactly how it comes across to me.

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I never expected an indictment but I wasn’t pissed off until I heard McCulloch intentionally muddying the waters at 9:00PM press conference.

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[quote=“Doremus_Jessup, post:17, topic:13616”]
I never expected an indictment
[/quote]I expected an indictment as a way to bring out all the evidence. I bothched that one thinking the prosecution was interested in transparency.

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Do you have an opinion on all the “leaked” information that came out during the trial? Does that happen from time to time or is that highly suspect? Or some place in between? Thanks!

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One of the things about dealing with the police in America is if you move away you get shot in the back, while if you turn around and move back toward the officer, which is the natural thing to do if the officer wants you to stop, then you’re considered a threat and get shot in chest and head multiple times. Especially if you’re Black.

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Missouri – it’s like Alabama, but farther north.

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In my 12 years as a prosecutor, I have never heard of Grand Jury information leaking like it did in this case. I don’t think that kind of information gets out unless someone close to the proceedings wants it to get out. The only people in that Grand Jury room should be the Grand Jurors, the prosecutor, the witness, and the stenographer (court reporter). I could take an educated guess as to who in that group, at least in this particular case, would be most likely to leak information, but I would rather not.

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Wilson’s testimony is available now, and it basically reads like you say…I didn’t read all the way to the end, but there wasn’t a lot of cross-examination. The thing that bothers me the most is that there apparently isn’t a contemporaneous write up of what happened…maybe it’s in the evidence that will be released, but I have yet to see anything so far. Without that, it’s very easy to believe that Wilson shaped his testimony based on what he was told about the case.

I also have a real problem with what he says was going on in the car…the way he said he was defending himself doesn’t seem to hold water, and it’s not clear how Brown can be shot in the right hand if he’s beating on Wilson. It just doesn’t all seem to fit together, and that’s a bad thing.

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