To be sure, I think a decision whether or not to initiate any federal civil rights-based case on the shooting will be political. But focusing merely on the Wilson testimony phase, it’s fairly clear the prosecutors chose to take a babying defense-like approach and didn’t press the witness as one otherwise would in the (so rare) case of a grand jury investigation where the would-be accused is questioned. (Nor, it seems, did any member of the grand jury vigorously press the right to pepper the guy with questions (I don’t fault them; it’s reasonable to assume the prosecutor didn’t bother to apprise them of that right or the scope of it whereas, on the flip side, the prosecutors went out of their way to do what no prosecutor would do elsewhere. I identified one GJ question on the topic of whether Wilson thought Brown had a gun.)
All the prep time and the fact that the police never had Wilson give a statement came in fairly handy.
One thing I find fascinating is that while there’s discussion of the 25 feet Brown allegedly moved toward Wilson, there’s no introduction of any information recently established by third parties that Brown died approx. 50 yards (not feet) away from Wilson’s vehicle (and supposedly Wilson not very far from his vehicle as he was taking the final shots).
It’s a strange transcript, but what is missing is a GJ investigation where “all of the evidence” is reflected over the 25 days the grand jury met. (We repeatedly heard how the prosecutor would bring in all the evidence, but clearly that’s not the case.)
I think it’s remarkable they failed to take any measurements on the scene. That reflects very badly on their police work, and stinks to high heaven, in my opinion.
Are you familiar with the rights that a target of an investigation has?
I ask because you appear to believe that the police could require Wilson to give a statement, and that the grand jury could require him to appear and answer whatever questions they want to pose.
I have no particular opinion of any of this — other than to note America has been castigated by that staunch upholder of international morality, North Korea, as a human rights graveyard — but anyone who can shoot and hit someone six times at 150 feet with a pistol must be an excellent shot.
It took 4 hours before the police could secure the crime scene to the point where the coroner could even approach the body and remove it. Death threats were being made by the mob and shots had been fired from the mob. Measurements of blood splatter would have been a secondary consideration.