re: Update from ferguson

Fine? Why?

That was fine too. I never expected to win that game.

quote:

---

You realize that this year over 9 MILLION indictments have been handed down by Grand Juries and only 11 non-indictments? Again a Grand Jury's isn't there to convict at all.

---

Well, there's a number that is complete and utter bullshait.

Grand juries no-bill cases all the time. As RG and I have pointed out, pretty much every single use of deadly force gets presented to a GJ even if all involved knows it was justified. The GJ then no-bills it - and there are a hell of a lot more than 11 of those in a year.

Car accidents, alleged thefts, and on and on and on get no-billed all the time.

The first two pages of a simple google search using the terms grand jury no-bill and limiting the date range from 1-11-13 to 12-31-13 (to weed out Ferguson) returns stories where GJs no-billed:

A judge accused of altering records,
Three teens accused of sexual assault
The New Jersey tanning mom
A Texas doctor accused of illegal abortions
A landlord accused of sexual assault
A man charged with Murder
A Louisiana security guard who shot someone
A man accused of sexually assaulting a 6 year old
A 19-year old driver who killed three in a car wreck

And that's just a few that actually made the news.

quote:

---

Where did you get that statistic from? Every county in every state has a grand jury that meets weekly or monthly and not every case gets indicted. We no billed more than 1 or 2 a month just in our county

---

It's been floating around since the return. Tis possible I misread it and it's 900,000 (I do have numerical dyslexia that flares up at times - straight up truth) but the rate at which Grand Juries indict is epic because the bar is so low.

I'm honestly starting to wonder about Missouri Law - maybe you do it differently than the rest of us (some states do). I know y'all have the Missouri Plan for Judges and we tweaked that model into the well-praise Tennessee Plan for our own Appellate and State Supremes and Tennessee is the only state in the Union where Grand Divisions (East, TN, Middle, West have legal force written into our constitution - when I say I'm from East, TN I'm referring to a place with a legal name, a Grand Division, a separate culture and certain legal requirements that must be adhered to at the state level - unlike other states it's not the same as simply giving a geographic description at all). Obviously, MO and TN have different setups from many states at least when it comes to the processes we have for selecting/electing state level judges so who knows - maybe y'all are just weird (er different with grand juries).

Dude this is open and shut, you can't just indict someone because there was simply a shooting.

Evidence for Indictment:

Someone was shot.

Evidence Against:

Known criminal with a penchant for violence (not even an hour before he was robbing someone).

2 inch bruise on the jaw area of a police officer who the guy hit.

Suspect shot in the hand at close range, his blood is inside the car and consistent with the shot, which suggests they were probably fighting for the gun.

Reasons we have to suspect that this story is different:

?????????

The autopsy shows he was shot all in the front, none in the back, the only one that broke the trend was to the top of the head (consistent with falling forward as a consequence of running toward the officer).

If you have a staggered or vertical pattern of shots starting from a lower point and rising, and you fall forward, it dictates that you were moving toward the person.

If he was moving slowly, he would have stopped himself from falling by posting his hands in front of him.

His hands are trapped underneath his body and his hips cocked upwards, meaning that he had been running or moving at a higher rate of speed than walking.

If his hands were up, they would have been posted in front of him, not beneath his body.

There is literally no evidence to contradict what we have currently.

No credible witnesses, his body positioning, the autopsy -- we have no reason to believe there was anything inculpatory about this.

quote:

---

The indictments number isn't the one in question. It is the number of cases no-billed that is absurdly incorrect.

As someone else said, that's a low number for a single GJ session in a single busy circuit anywhere in the US.

---

It was stated as a national thing not local. I wish I'd saved the link so I could double check but I didn't. I'm not trying to exaggerate anything but I'm human and I wouldn't presume to think I wasn't capable of error, especially when talking numbers.

quote:

---

StrawsDrawnAtRandom

---

In normal grand jury proceedings, only ONE side is shown. IOW, the defense presents no case and the victim's record matters not a bit. A grand jury proceeding is typically the prosecutor and prosecutor ONLY telling the jury whatever he pleases about you. Defense can't even challenge it.

THAT is why indictments are so high. Again Federal Grand Juries work differently.

^True.

I heard, that is where this was filmed..

We actually had victims come and tell their side as well