The governor issues a video statement calling for a vigorous prosecution in the shooting death of Michael Brown. Note also that he’s calling on the attorney general of the United States to achieve justice for Michael Brown. Blatantly assuming his state’s own prosecution might not be enough. This is all before the grand jury has even convened. Meanwhile the Attorney General has been making similar dramatic statements for days. Demanding a Federal autopsy and putting the full resources of the justice dept unto the investigation.
Our jury system wasn’t designed to withstand this kind of onslaught. Everyone involved in this case will feel the pressure to make an example out of this cop. The state and federal investigators, prosecutors, judges and juries will know their marching orders. Find a way to convict this guy. Evidence be dammed.
I don’t know enough about this case to even guess if he’s innocent or guilty. Not one piece of evidence has been heard in court. I’m beginning to seriously doubt he will get a fair trial. The grand jury wouldn’t dare fail to indict him. It’s a given he’ll face both state and federal trials.
Is there any chance Darren Wilson will get a fair trial in this politicized environment?
No crime has been committed, and for a Democrat, Nixon has been engaged in nothing but utterly comtemptible, spineless cover-my-own-ass behavior ever since this manufactroversy hit the news.
Well, I remember thinking George Zimmerman and the L.A. cops who beat up Rodney King were screwed too. It’s way too early for predictions. If he is indicted, a lot will depend on where the trial(s) take place and the makeup of the jury.
The LA cops, Koon and Powell were convicted and sentenced to thirty months in federal correctional camps by a Federal Court. They were acquitted in state court.
I don’t see any reason to believe that this will be any different. There was never any crime committed. The police realized that immediately, hence the initial failure to prosecute. After public pressure, various authorities will attempt a prosecution, which fail based on the same information that caused the initial failure to prosecute. Then the same people who protested initially will have an additional protest because they still won’t believe/trust the decision of a jury.
Of course, we don’t have complete information about this case and it may be that there are reasons (unknown to me) to make it different from Zimmerman.
In any event, I do believe the cop will wind up with a fair trial that will have a reasonable finding based on the facts. I actually believe that this is mostly true for most trials in which defendants are adequately represented.
In some ways, I think the unfair aspect is that the trial will be conducted at all; crimes should be brought to trial on their merits, not based on public opinion. The hassle of a lengthy trial is a sort of punishment all on its own.
I haven’t been following this much but I read today that Wilson was attacked by Brown and had to be hospitalized afterwards. If so, I don’t know how they would get a conviction if that is true (unless Wilson shot him out of anger about being beaten up).
However reading up on it the only sites mentioning this are right wing sites (which have a bias in favor of anyone who shoots a black male youth it seems). I haven’t seen this story about Wilson being attacked on mainstream media outlets.
I am more outraged by the random verbal and physical abuse by police on citisens than I am the occassional shooting which has nore tragic consequences. Police officers have many times made mistakes and killed innocent people but it was usually done out of fear based on either real or peceived threats. I don’t know the facts to this case but I am not convinced that any crime has been commited.
ABC nightly news reported the officer sustained an eye socket injury. They also reported a cell phone caught a witness commenting that the cop was bum rushed.
<shrug> Maybe this guy won’t get railroaded after all. I don’t know. It’s bad news when the Governor of Missouri and US Attorney General are looking for a scapegoat. I’d hate to be in this cop’s shoes right now.
calling for a “vigerous prosecution” does not equal convicting the guy - or that it even goes to court - it simply means to “institute legal proceedings” or to “follow it thru to the end” - it sure does sound good from a microphone tho.
For those saying that the Missouri Governor wants Wilson railroaded, he could have easily bowed to pressure from some of the public to ask the St. Louis DA to recuse himself and clear the way for a special prosecutor, but has not done so.
It’s a bit foolish to make any firm predictions, given that there will probably be at least a month of Grand Jury review before we even know if he’s charged with anything at all, but really, I think the weight of history in these sorts of incidents leans in favor of the cop.
What should be being called for is thorough investigation, ideally a separate police force, not pre-empting that investigation by calling for a prosecution at this point.
One might hope that the publicity will help him get a fair trial - it certainly seemed to help George Zimmerman, although I doubt Wilson will need donations to pay his legal bills. The problems will come if he’s not convicted, and has to somehow try to rebuild his life. If that does happen, it would be wise to remember that, if the story that he was attacked is correct, then he, not Michael Brown, is the victim here.
Bullshit. You have no idea whether a crime has been committed. Given we know almost nothing about what happened, I think it’s pretty early to start to comment either way.
What is clear is that this case has been poorly handles from the start. Regardless of what happened, there needed to be far more transparency on the part of LE and government.
As I said somewhere deep in the Pit thread right now we really don’t know what the witness testimony is. A lot of people like to become the center of attention and tell everyone what they saw. Once they start getting a My Cousin Vinnie style interview under oath their story often changes. Maybe they came in just after it happened and inferred what they think happened. Maybe they heard it from someone else. That’s true of any rumored testimony either for or against. Hopefully everyone is truthful under oath.
Transparency how? If you require law enforcement to release the information in active investigations piecemeal as it comes it the case will be tainted and the police will be paralyzed. Missouri seems to have a very strong open records act that was one of the first enacted around the country. The results of the investigation will be released. If the grand juries no bill then it will all come out soon. If there is an indictment I’m sure the prosecution will ask for it to be held until trial so as not to taint the jury pool. I’m sure there are 12 people under a rock somewhere in Missouri that haven’t formed an opinion yet.