How About a Ham Sandwich?
By Albert B. Kelly
In legal circles, the
saying is that prosecutors, before a grand jury, could indict a ham sandwich if
they wanted too. The quip always brings a chuckle, but there’s some truth to
it. To give you an idea of how much truth, consider a 2010 Bureau of Justice
stat showing that out of 162,000 tries, juries failed to return an indictment only
11 times.
That’s why what happened
in Ferguson- with a grand jury convened to determine whether Police Officer
Darren Wilson committed a crime when he shot and killed unarmed teen Michael
Brown- seems like a slap in the face to many.
It was the same in NYC
when a grand jury decided not to indict the cop who put unarmed Eric Garner in
a prohibited chokehold causing his death. On the video, you can hear him say “I
can’t breathe”; the coroner ruled it a homicide- still nothing from
prosecutors. He was allegedly selling loose cigarettes.
But in terms of Ferguson,
opinions are what you’d expect-they’re all over the map because forensics
aside, the cop is white and the dead teen was black with all that this implies.
While I understand anger, I don’t understand the senseless violence and
destruction that came afterward.
Why not take that energy
and do something constructive like organize, register, turn out on Election
Day, run for local office, and be a force for something constructive, positive,
and long-lasting? But the anger is there and it’s fixed on what prosecutors mostly
didn’t do.
Understand that a Grand
Jury, deciding whether a specific crime occurred, is not deciding guilt or
innocence; it’s simply saying that what happened has enough questions in it
that a trial should take place to find out more…that an indictment should be handed
down.
Prosecutors represent “the
people” or the state. Prosecutors become the voice of the victim and by
extension, the broader community that was harmed or diminished.
After a suspect is charged,
prosecutors go before a grand jury- a group of citizens- people of all shapes
and sizes, and they present a narrative of what they think happened and why it
should go to the next step-a trial.
There is generally no
opportunity for the defense to challenge evidence, no right to be heard, and
someone facing indictment before a grand jury gets to present nothing in their
own defense. It’s all about the prosecutor; which is why the ham sandwich
doesn’t stand a chance.
This is part of why
Ferguson became a spark. Prosecutor, Robert McCulloch should have been replaced
by a special prosecutor because having immediate family in the local law
enforcement community presented a huge conflict of interest.
Beyond that, McCulloch’s
assistant prosecutors who did the leg work, presented no narrative, they told
no story- they basically did a “document dump” and left it to the jury to sort
out.
Considering the ham
sandwich quip and the Bureau of Justice stat, it says they already decided the thing;
therefore “evidence” should not be challenged, conflicting testimony should not
withstand scrutiny. But rather than say that, they hid behind the jury.
While defendants generally
don’t testify on their own behalf, Darren Wilson got to give his side of the
story-he got to paint his picture of Brown so jurors would know his mindset
when he shot the teen. Prosecutors never challenged a thing; but then they
never spoke to Michael Brown’s mother about her dead son either.
The only thing the Grand
jury had was the cop’s take; which was basically that the kid was like the “hulk”,
that the cop was like “a defenseless five year-old”, that the kid looked like a
“demon” coming at him. The kid became a stereotype and once he became that…well
then he easily becomes “a good shoot”.
Most people know there are
two sides to a story just as there’s conflicting testimony- nothing’s well, you
know- black and white. Outrage doesn’t make it to trial; outrage starts and
stops at the fact that there will be no trial so witnesses can be
cross-examined, evidence challenged, maybe a few stereotypes knocked down. Was
that too much to ask?
As far as what came
afterwards, the governor preemptively declared a state of emergency, called in
the National Guard and had everyone armed to the teeth out of an abundance of
caution-to protect life and property and free speech- except maybe on West
Florissant Ave.
But rather than announce in
the morning, they announce after dark during prime time on the east coast. Banking
on the anger, perhaps expanding the stereotype with live-shots of looting and
flames licking the night sky over Ferguson- all the best to reassure their
audience that they had it right all along, that it really was “a good shoot”.
Maybe that’s why I never
did care much for ham sandwiches.