Next month in Ferguson,Missouri, the grand jury investigating the shooting death of unarmed teen Michael Brown will be issuing its ruling. By all indications the final result may be a spark for a new round of outrage and protests. This is because St. Louis County prosecutor, Robert McCulloch, seems to be taking unorthodox methods in presenting the information to the grand jury.
Apparently McCulloch’s office, to date, has not presented any recommended charges to the grand jury. Usually in high profile cases like this, the prosecutor’s office generally presents a case with evidence to the grand jury. This has not occurred. Instead, all the evidence has been given to the grand jury and it is being left to them to sort out possible charges. The St. Louis County prosecutor’s office claims this is a better way to give the jury more authority over the possible indictment. But legal experts state that a grand jury is less likely to hand down an indictment unless a prosecutor asked for the indictment.
Many civil rights leaders and community advocates have called for McCulloch to step down as prosecutor in this case because of his history. McCulloch’s father was a police officer who was killed in the line of duty by a black suspect. In addition, McCulloch has several members of his family in law enforcement. The overwhelming fear of many is that he will be prejudiced in this case because of his long-standing ties to the law enforcement community. However, that’s not the only reason for concern about the prosecutor impartiality.
While McCulloch has been the county prosecutor, there have been at least 12 fatal shootings by police officers. McCulloch’s office, in a span of 23 years, at no time has prosecuted any officer involved in the shooting. There have been four occasions that he presented evidence to a grand jury, where he did not ask for specific charges, and the grand jury did not indict. One blatant case of his bias occurred in the year 2000. A grand jury failed to indict two police officers, who shot two unarmed black men 21 times. The police claim it was a botched drug arrest, however one of the unarmed men was not even a suspect in the illicit activities. McCulloch went on to describe the two black men as “bums” and would not release the video of the shooting. There was a federal probe over this shooting and when the video was finally released, what it showed was shocking. There is every indication that the police lied during their testimony when they stated that the car was moving when the men were shot. It turns out the car the two men were in was stationary.
Despite these concerns, Gov. Jay Nixon of Missouri refuses to appoint a special prosecutor. Many feel it is because of the political connection of McCulloch that is causing the governor not to take action. Based on the prior history of the St. Louis prosecutor’s office the expectation of justice for Michael Brown does not look good.
