Sham Prosecution in Ferguson
Via Hullabaloo, the following quote, which pretty much says it all:
(Bolding by me, following the bolding at Hullabaloo)
The Darren Wilson grand jury was an illegal sham designed to exculpate a white man who murdered a black teenager. This prosecutor was involved in raising money for Darren Wilson's defense, and if he had a shred of morality would have recused himself from the case. Instead, he knowingly rigged the proceedings to produce this result.
In the decision of the court in this exact same case, Justice Scalia wrote that the double jeopardy clause of the fifth amendment does not apply to grand jury proceedings, and another grand jury is free to indict Darren Wilson in the future. That is what should be done to correct this horrible abuse of the justice procedure, but I guess there is not much hope of that.
And while they are at it, the prosecutor in this case needs to be removed from his position and thrown in jail. There is absolutely no excuse for this sort of misuse of his privileged position.
Correction: Gene informs me in the comments that my allegations about the prosecutor raising money for Darren Wilson are false. Here is a Snopes article about the subject. The article shows a screen shot of a website selling T-shirts to raise money for Darren Wilson. On the website is prominently displayed the logo of an organization called "Backstoppers," of which this prosecutor happens to be the President. After all the public attention, this organization claims to have nothing to do with the T-shirt sales, and the people who were involved are unknown. Snopes categorizes the story as a "mixture of true and false," but I guess there is no smoking gun there. Think what you want.
"It is the grand jury’s function not ‘to enquire … upon what foundation [the charge may be] denied,’ or otherwise to try the suspect’s defenses, but only to examine ‘upon what foundation [the charge] is made’ by the prosecutor. Respublica v. Shaffer, 1 Dall. 236 (O. T. Phila. 1788); see also F. Wharton, Criminal Pleading and Practice § 360, pp. 248-249 (8th ed. 1880). As a consequence, neither in this country nor in England has the suspect under investigation by the grand jury ever been thought to have a right to testify or to have exculpatory evidence presented."
-Antonin Scalia, United States v, Williams, 504 U.S. 36 (1992)
(Bolding by me, following the bolding at Hullabaloo)
The Darren Wilson grand jury was an illegal sham designed to exculpate a white man who murdered a black teenager. This prosecutor was involved in raising money for Darren Wilson's defense, and if he had a shred of morality would have recused himself from the case. Instead, he knowingly rigged the proceedings to produce this result.
In the decision of the court in this exact same case, Justice Scalia wrote that the double jeopardy clause of the fifth amendment does not apply to grand jury proceedings, and another grand jury is free to indict Darren Wilson in the future. That is what should be done to correct this horrible abuse of the justice procedure, but I guess there is not much hope of that.
And while they are at it, the prosecutor in this case needs to be removed from his position and thrown in jail. There is absolutely no excuse for this sort of misuse of his privileged position.
Correction: Gene informs me in the comments that my allegations about the prosecutor raising money for Darren Wilson are false. Here is a Snopes article about the subject. The article shows a screen shot of a website selling T-shirts to raise money for Darren Wilson. On the website is prominently displayed the logo of an organization called "Backstoppers," of which this prosecutor happens to be the President. After all the public attention, this organization claims to have nothing to do with the T-shirt sales, and the people who were involved are unknown. Snopes categorizes the story as a "mixture of true and false," but I guess there is no smoking gun there. Think what you want.
Comments
It appears the raising money allegation was false. But, I do believe McCulloch purposefully staged this Grand Jury proceeding in order to afford Wilson a solid Defense while looking towards furthering his career.
It is a false argument for no one is saying reverse violence doesn't happen. They are saying black boys and teens are 21 times more likely to be shot for being black then white boys and teens. That is fact. (Google it please. I'm not doing your research for you - not unless you pay me the monies I am worth - and if you has to ask, nope, you can't afford).
In the business of Michael Brown and the injustices done to his family there was another killing, one that I've only seen reported on those "Liberal Elitist" sites. Tamir Rice. Again please Google it for I can't... I just can't... There is video of his death, just a heads up.
This isn't the United States I was taught about in school. We have become the enemy we feared back in the day.It is time to review policies, to read and re-read laws to ensure privilege is not legislated.
It is past time to understand and correct the wrongs perpetrated by following ancient mythical rules of skin and gender. Are we adults to face what frightens us or are we adolescents who smash into nothingness all that is strange?
I'm going with adult, but then I've been out standing in a field alone for a long time.
Connie
So you think Wilson should have taken his chances against the charging 300 lb "child" who tried to grab at his gun? Are you people for real?
You think your cowardice should be all the legal protection someone needs?
A black male frightens you – you therefore feel perfectly entitled to shoot him seven or eight times, in case he slaps you, or something, possibly nothing, while he has just tried to run away and you pursued him, scared out of your tiny gun nerd mind.
Or maybe just to show him who is boss, even in this day and age.
Because hey.. he was black and male, and you’re armed - what more do you need, and what then do you have to fear if you KILL A MAN?
Nothing personal, mind… it’s not just your cowardice - it’s the culture of cowardice that have-gun-fixes-everything attitudes breed. You’ve been conditioned to think the way you do. It’s very sad.
I was looking the other month at some Right wing idiot’s blog post where she was indignant a school had confiscated a child’s toy gun, because - y’know - kids have toys! What could possibly be wrong with a kid having a toy gun in a public place?
A school IS a public place (so is being 10 meters from your front lawn) So... Why did she not think that could be ‘menacing’, or someone might think "hey... maybe it's not a water pistol".
Oh of course, silly me, it’s coming back to me now: The kid was white. Not one of Paul Ryan’s “Inner City” males. So it’s got nothing to do with the toy, it’s who has it.
And more than that, more than the racism - it's America, a person's right to shoot someone just because that makes them feel better is to be protected no matter the cost as long as the cost is worn by... well... 'those' sort of people.
Acceptable casualties of an insane gun culture.
And I mean "insane". If you live in America in the main you will not learn of how the rest of the world sees you on THIS issue. We think you're fucking retarded. And every statistic under the sun and cases like this and chickenshits like you demonstrate it.
And don't bother with 2nd amendment 'FREEDOM!' auto-response Pavlov's fucking dog jingoist horseshit. None of that works on someone who hasn't been fed that mythology from birth. You kill three 9/11s worth of citizens every year. Other day a three year old shot her mother in the head while the latter was changing a diaper.
Yet YOU ask "are you people for real?"
You don't act like a punk and then charge a cop with a gun so there is no struggle for the gun,Duh. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.
But thanks for your own interpretation of the facts.
That un looked very real if you bothered to research what it looked like.
As a matter of fact let's take all the cops out of Fuerguson and see how long it takes to turn into a war zone
I did watch the video of Tamir Rice. He was a child playing with a toy gun and yep, he was pointing it stuff, just like a bamzillion kids do every day. My parents believed toy guns caused violence so they didn't give us girls weapons. We made them anyway and my lipstick laser beam was much handier than any six shooter. I'm saying this because kids are kids and you are trying to turn Tamir into a grownup. Shame on you.
I can't make you see how full of hate you are. I can't even remove those glasses you wear on your soul that says every black male is a threat. All I can do is stand and tell the truth even though my voice shakes in the telling.
Magpie - aside from a green bird who will go nameless you are one of my favorite birds. Thank you for your words.
Anon 11:04 - Per your comment an old white dude that steals from his neighbors is considered to be a hero to you. And then you said "As a matter of fact let's take all the cops out of Fuerguson and see how long it takes to turn into a war zone"
Wow. According to your logic the ONLY people in the world with ANY values are White Dominionist Christians. Oh, and male... lets not forget that as us women folks are good for one thing.
Just wow. I'm so glad your world view is ending.
Connie
if you recall 2 kids who ere playing with toy guns on their own property were suspended from school
In case you don't watch the news guns are threatening even if they do look real.
Next time you have a chance go take a walk through Chicago,Detroit,Milwaukee,
Cleveland or South Central and let's see how that works out for you.
Maybe that will get you off your soapbox a little
Menacing? You mean like this?
Tamir Rice was a 12-year old boy playing with his toy gun. The video shows the cops driving up to the gazebo where he was sitting by himself and shooting the child withing TWO SECONDS of encountering him. Two g-d seconds? The cops thought he was a 20-year old? Any idiot can see from the video that is a child. Well, now a dead child. He was shot in the stomach and the cops did not give him any medical aid, the child died the next day.
To keep pretending this is not racially motivated killings is to ignore what is in front of our noses.