Two people stand outside the building where the Ferguson grand jury met. Man: The officer received the benefit of the doubt. Woman: An unarmed teenager could have used some of that.
A friend of mine served on a grand jury for six months. They went through scores of cases, perhaps a couple hundred. The prosecution offered the evidence. They took a vote. Indicted the accused. And move on to the next one. Though he never learned the final outcome, he was a little distressed that the jury NEVER failed to indict, not in ONE single case. Though he voted against indictment several times, indictment won by never less than a 2 to 1 margin. Indictment does mean guilt, of course. It means a trial. By legal definition, being indicted does not mean you aren’t innocent. It means the situation is ambiguous enough to warrant a full-blown trial, at least to a majority of the jurors. Grand juries don’t have to unanimous as petit juries do. I’ve read too many comments by police officers to think that Wilson handled this situation perfectly. Perhaps he would have been exonerated of criminal responsibility at a real trial. We’ll never know, now. I don’t think he is escaping punishment, deserved or not.
A friend of mine served on a grand jury for six months. They went through scores of cases, perhaps a couple hundred. The prosecution offered the evidence. They took a vote. Indicted the accused. And move on to the next one. Though he never learned the final outcome, he was a little distressed that the jury NEVER failed to indict, not in ONE single case. Though he voted against indictment several times, indictment won by never less than a 2 to 1 margin. Indictment does mean guilt, of course. It means a trial. By legal definition, being indicted does not mean you aren’t innocent. It means the situation is ambiguous enough to warrant a full-blown trial, at least to a majority of the jurors. Grand juries don’t have to unanimous as petit juries do. I’ve read too many comments by police officers to think that Wilson handled this situation perfectly. Perhaps he would have been exonerated of criminal responsibility at a real trial. We’ll never know, now. I don’t think he is escaping punishment, deserved or not.