Ferguson / Staten Island Decisions -- No Indictments

And that, not a racist witness or exculpatory evidence or whatever, is the true travesty.

 

Targets specifically have to waive their Fifth Amendment rights before they appear in front of a grand jury.

http://www.justice.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/11mcrm.htm#9-11.152

 

Of course it is.

If a prosecutor can does not believe he has any chance of getting a conviction, he can't take a case to trial.

This is why we have preliminary hearings and grand jury proceedings.

If there isn't a single prosecutor who will come out and say, "yeah, I'd be comfortable bringing that case to trial," then why would any prosecutor take it to trial?

 

Obviously, if the target is requesting to appear in front of the Grand Jury, they would have to waive it. There would be no point in requesting to appear if they planned to invoke the Fifth. But the prosecution has no legal obligation to allow the target to testify.

If the prosecution or the Grand Jury subpoena the target, the target is ALWAYS advised to invoke the Fifth.

 

This is Missouri law?

Please show this to me.

 

In a normal world, if a prosecutor does not believe he has any chance of getting a conviction, he simply declines to press charges.

 

Right.

Is there someone who thinks this case existed in a normal world?

 

You, apparently. You've repeatedly noted (incorrectly BTW) what grand juries do, how things happen etc. as if this is a normal case.

 

LOL.

The prosecutor could have simply decided not to bring charges.

Instead, he let 23 members of the community look at the evidence. They decided not to bring charges.

What more do people want? This case already received more attention, more investigation, than most.

No one thinks it could result in a conviction at trial.

No one (no one credible) thinks you bring a case to trial when you don't think you can get a conviction. It's a waste of taxpayer time, money, and resources.

And, if the prosecutor, and grand jury are both so wrong, then why haven't the feds done anything?

 

Couldn't find anything on the Missouri legislature website and I don't have time right now to dig deeper, but this passage from the decision in United States v. Williams (90-1972), 504 U.S. 36 (1992) is relevant. The decision was written by Scalia:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/90-1972.ZS.html

He also writes:

Given this interpretation by the Supreme Court, do you still think McCulloch genuinely tried to get an indictment and simply failed to convince the Grand Jury?

 

You know there were 12 members of the Grand Jury, not 23, right?

 

I've never argued he tried to get an indictment.