Grand jury now has until January to decide whether to charge Ferguson officer
A move by the prosecutor presiding over the grand jury in the police shooting death of Michael Brown to continue the jury proceedings until January has angered many of Brown’s supporters who see the extension as a political maneuver and a slap in the face.
St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch announced this week that the jury now has until Jan. 7 to determine whether or not Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson should be indicted on criminal charges in the Aug. 9 shooting death of Brown.
Wilson, after more than a month in hiding, emerged publicly for the first time on Tuesday to testify before the grand jury, according to the St. Louis Dispatch. Wilson has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting. He delivered nearly four hours of testimony before the grand jury, according to a source close to the investigation who spoke with the Dispatch.
Wilson was not legally bound to testify, but according to the Dispatch’s source, the officer was “cooperative.”
In the wake of protests and violence following Brown’s killing in Ferguson, Missouri, McCulloch said the jury would likely issue a decision by October.
“Moving the grand jury back to January was like throwing gasoline on a 4-alarm fire,” said Patricia Bynes, a Democratic committeewoman for Ferguson. “People are angry and they see this as political manipulation. To think that it’s going to take this long, 5 to 6 months, to look at the evidence and say we may need a trial, is pissing people off.”
Many supporters of Brown and his family have called for McCulloch to step down and be replaced with a special prosecutor. Critics say his close ties to law enforcement, his past inability to successfully bring charges against cops who kill blacks and a well-known family history that includes his police officer father being killed on duty by a black assailant, make him unable to objectively prosecute the Brown case.
McCulloch has said publicly that he has no plans to step down. He has promised fairness and transparency and said this week that if the grand jury opts to not indict Wilson, he would release all transcripts and audio of the grand jury’s proceedings.
In a move that some found surprising, McCulloch said that he will be presenting all the evidence in the case to grand jurors to allow them to determine whether or not to indict Wilson. Typically a prosecutor will offer jurors a set of recommended charges. In this case, McCulloch, has declined to do so. Instead, the grand jury is being fed every shred of evidence in pieces as the prosecutor’s office receives it, rather than waiting for the county and federal probes to be completed, as is common practice.
they have called the murderer to get his side knowing he's the one who wrote his own report yet they never called any witnesses that obviously counter his account as we all have seen through the press. but just taking his testimony and no one else's is not feeding them all the information it's feeding them the racist lies that are a part of that city's MO then sending them home until January armed only with the corrupted testimony they cooked up and not hearing it from the eye witnesses themselves, there is massive skulduggery a foot.
where is DOJ this is clearly an abuse of due process and no presence of justice again, they say jury of his peers, jury of his peers means White homicidal cop cheerleaders.
Several speakers demanded that Stenger call for McCulloch’s resignation and gave him until noon on Wednesday to get it done.
Protesters chanted, “Twelve noon, Stenger! Twelve noon, Stenger!”
“We will do everything in our power on election day because we see you sitting there with a smug look on your face,” one speaker told Stenger, according to the St. Louis Dispatch. “We will have our say in November when we go to vote.”
Patricia Bynes, the Democratic Committeewoman, said the disruption of Tuesday’s county council meeting was a clear sign that the energy behind the Michael Brown movement is far from waning and that supporters are becoming more politically engaged in the process.
Umar Lee, a St. Louis cab driver and supporter of Brown’s who has been involved in protests since shortly after his death, called the decision by the prosecutor to extend the grand jury a “tactical decision.”
“I think basically it’s a prequel to a non-indictment,” said Lee, who was among hundreds of protesters arrested during the first month of street actions in Ferguson. “I think they’re waiting to January because they want people to fade and for the movement to fizzle out in the cold weather.”this will not die down that is a stupid move if that is what they are hoping for and it's a insult to the Black conviction of justice and to put a stop to this genocide sweeping the country, it also shows their attempt to deny a speedy trial they are stomping on the rights of the Brown family, and that alone should be enough tp pull Eric Holder in to this travesty of law and violation of rights
