Hennepin County Attorney: Grand juries no longer used in police shooting cases

[Valin]

MPLS (Red) Star Tribune:

David Chanen

March 16, 2016

 

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Wednesday that grand juries will no longer be used to look into police-involved shootings, including the death of Jamar Clark.

 

“I concluded that the accountability and transparency limitations of a grand jury are too high a hurdle to overcome,” Freeman said in a news conference. Instead, the County Attorney’s office will investigate and determine whether there are charges. No decision has been made in the Jamar Clark case.

 

The 23-member grand jury has been used to determine in secret whether criminal charges are warranted in police shootings for more than 40 years in Hennepin County. Freeman said he began a review of the process 16 months ago, and was set to announce changes to the system last November, but postponed the announcement after Clark was killed.

 

(Snip)

 

“Secrecy, lack of transparency and no direct accountability strikes us as problematic in a democratic society, and to use or not use a grand jury in a shooting case is a hard decision for me,” Freeman said. “ … The law that applies to the facts is exactly the same whether the prosecutor makes a decision or the grand jury does. On the other hand in our society I believe accountability and transparency are critical concepts for a just and healthy democracy.”

 

Civil rights advocates, who long pushed Freeman to do away with a grand jury in the case, hailed the decision. “I am so incredibly proud of the black and queer young folks and the community who demanded justice,” said Kandace Montgomery, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Minneapolis.

 

(Snip)

 

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This going to go over like a lead balloon with local law enforcement.

[clearvision]

So now a political person makes the decision without a clearly already biased grand jury process.

[Valin]

So now a political person makes the decision without a clearly already biased grand jury process.

 

 

What Could Go Wrong?