Micheal Brown Grand Jury.

On Monday (17/11/14) the US state of Missouri issued a state of emergency in preparation of the announcement of the grand jury's ruling over the shooting of Micheal Brown.

As something uniquely American the purpose of a Grand Jury is to establish whether there is probable cause to move forward with a prosecution for a serious offence such as murder. It's intended is to further protect the individual from unwarranted prosecution by a malicious government/state prosecutor. Funnily enough I happen to think this is a brilliant idea although I've got no idea where this former British Colony got the idea from. Although they can be unsealed after the event Grand Jury's are conducted in the utmost secrecy. Therefore all the off the record rumours and gossip I've heard about this particular Grand Jury might just be a pack of lies.

However the gossip that keeps coming out are that both the autopsy conducted by the state of Missouri and the autopsy conducted by the US Federal Government on the orders of Attorney General Eric Holder found physical evidence (blood transfer and gun shot residue) that strongly indicates that after committing a robbery Micheal Brown saw a police car (SUV) pull up alongside him and his accomplice Dorian Johnson. Brown responded to this by attacking the police officer (Darren Wilson) in the vehicle. During the course of this attack Wilson's sidearm was fired and Brown was struck by a bullet. Brown then ran away and as he is required by law Wilson gave chase. Brown then turned towards Wilson who being in genuine fear for his life opened fire killing Brown.

Despite the rather wild claims of Benjamin Crump the Brown family lawyer the autopsy conducted by the family found nothing to contradict this version of events. The main eyewitness -  Dorian Johnson - whose testimony has been parroted by numerous other people who claim to have been in the area distinctly lacks credibility due to the fact he was engaged in a criminal enterprise at the time.

Juries are hard to predict and do have a habit of producing often strange verdicts. However based on this evidence and the law it would be almost impossible for this Grand Jury to indict Wilson because there is certainly no chance of a successful prosecution. It is though possible that this particular Grand Jury is being delayed by one or two members who simply want to kill the white guy regardless of what the evidence says. Under those circumstances that Grand Jury would then be dismissed and a new one assembled.

However the rumour I've heard is that the Grand Jury actually decided not to indict Wilson on Friday (14/11/14). The release of this information has been delayed though in the first instance to avoid clashing with this past weekend's G20 Summit. It is being delayed further to help manage the threat posed by a mob that despite all their demands for "Due Process!" have already decided that Wilson is guilty and must hang.

Complicating matters further although there is no planning the situation in Ferguson is very similar to the situation in the Palestinian West Bank with basically petty thugs lying their a*ses off in the hope of provoking a violent uprising.

21:20 on 18/11/14 (UK date).

Edited at around 22:00 on 24/11/14 (UK date) to add;

Although delegates began leaving several hours ago in little under an hour the Vienna talks on Iran's nuclear program will officially end. Therefore the US is about the release the verdict of the Grand Jury into the shooting of Micheal Brown so the inevitable rioting can take place without causing too much disruption to international politics.

As such I think this post is worth re-reading. However I should point out that post-pub and halfway through a football match I didn't quite make one thing clear. A lot of the talk surrounding the Grand Jury is how they will be able to unseal the transcripts while protecting the witnesses by keeping their identities secret. This suggests that a lot of people who appeared on TV claiming that Brown was surrendering with his hands up whilst shot said something very, very different whilst in secret and under oath. As such they are worried about retaliations from the Ferguson community.

Also I think it is worth remembering that it was shortly after the Federal autopsy was completed that Attorney General Eric Holder handed in his resignation.

(Originally Posted on 18/11/14 - UK date).