Wednesday, November 26, 2014
In 2010, the last year for data on the number of federal criminal cases and grand jury decisions, U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162,000 federal cases. Grand juries declined to return an indictment in 11 of them.
As University of Illinois law professor, Andrew D. Leipold said - "Something has gone horribly wrong."
And it happens again and again with police shootings.
Newspaper accounts suggest, grand juries frequently decline to indict law-enforcement officials. A recent Houston Chronicle investigation found that “police have been nearly immune from criminal charges in shootings” in Houston and other large cities in recent years. In Harris County, Texas, for example, grand juries haven’t indicted a Houston police officer since 2004; in Dallas, grand juries reviewed 81 shootings between 2008 and 2012 and returned just one indictment. Separate research by Bowling Green State University criminologist Philip Stinson has found that officers are rarely charged in on-duty killings, although it didn’t look at grand jury indictments specifically....
Last night, the National Bar Association, "the nation's oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges," issued a statement calling for Federal Charges to be brought against
Officer Wilson.
WASHINGTON, DC – The National Bar Association is questioning how the Grand Jury, considering the evidence before them, could reach the conclusion that Darren Wilson should not be indicted and tried for the shooting death of Michael Brown. National Bar Association President Pamela J. Meanes expresses her sincere disappointment with the outcome of the Grand Jury’s decision but has made it abundantly clear that the National Bar Association stands firm and will be calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue federal charges against officer Darren Wilson. “We will not rest until Michael Brown and his family has justice” states Pamela Meanes, President of the National Bar Association.....
Justice does not happen without struggle and this struggle is far from over.
No Justice. No peace.