<\/a>The decision not to indict Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown is wrong in multiple ways, not the least of which is the unorthodox way that County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch presented his \u201ccase.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to question: Police procedures immediately following the shooting; the hard-to-believe story told by Wilson; the fact that Wilson\u2014the potential indictee– even testified to the grand jury; the undirected data-dump of evidence.<\/p>\n

One thing I\u2019m not hearing, though, is a more \u201cmeta\u201d view of the grand jury proceedings. As I have written previously, I served on the St. Louis County Grand Jury a number of years ago, and it\u2019s clear to me that McCulloch\u2019s approach to the Wilson case was totally unorthodox\u2014and perhaps even calculated to result in a non-indictment.<\/p>\n

Floating above all of my doubts about the sincerity of McColloch\u2019s attempt to get an indictment is the fact\u2014in itself\u2014that he treated this one case so differently\u2014so unequally. In this one case\u2014this case only\u2014the possible indictment of a white police officer in the death of an unarmed black teenager\u2014McColloch decided to go \u201cseparate and unequal\u201d in his approach to the grand jury.<\/p>\n

If he had wanted to demonstrate fairness, McCulloch could have treated this case just like any other. An \u201cequal\u201d treatment would have meant that the prosecutors would\u2014as they do in all other cases before the grand jury\u2014cull the evidence and show just enough to make the case for probable cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cEqual\u201d treatment would have meant that the person facing possible indictment would not be given the opportunity to testify to the grand jury.<\/p>\n

\u201cEqual\u201d treatment would have meant that the prosecutors would definitively list the charge they were seeking.<\/p>\n

\u201cEqual\u201d treatment might also have meant that prosecutors would take their evidence directly to a judge for a preliminary hearing in open court\u2014not to the secret grand jury. [My understanding of the role of the grand jury is to hold closed-door, probable cause hearings in cases in which the identity of minor children or undercover police officers need to be protected. This case did not meet those criteria.]<\/p>\n

But \u201cequal\u201d is not what we got.<\/p>\n

McCulloch\u2019s separate and unequal grand-jury strategy is, to me, just another reflection of the inequalities in our society and in our criminal justice system. Our system treats black people differently, plain and simple. In this case, a black victim received a different standard of justice. [He jaywalked. He may have shoplifted. He was unarmed, but was shot dead.] A white perpetrator\u2014a police officer, no less\u2014got special treatment. Not just on the street, and not just in the police station and in the media, but in the grand jury room as well.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just another part of the ingrained, unacknowledged, not-so-subtle institutionalized racism that permeates our society and our justice system.<\/p>\n

Shame on Bob McCulloch for being a part of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The decision not to indict Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown is wrong in multiple ways, not the least of which<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[767,294,1988,572,1360],"tags":[2533,942,2322],"yoast_head":"\n