William N. Grigg:
The prosecutors lied about the law in order to exonerate Wilson. Ignore O'Donnell's gratuitous invocation of George Wallace and focus on the fact that Alizadeh consciously misrepresented the law before Wilson's testimony (in which she acted as his advocate, rather than his examiner), and then offered a perfunctory admission of this many weeks later -- without explaining what the law actually says, or specifying how she had misstated it.
In most cases, prosecutors will pull this kind of stunt with Brady material (potentially exculpatory evidence they are required to provide to the defense) by "misplacing" it until late in the proceedings, or doing their best to hid it. This is the obverse of that trick: Seeking to protect a colleague in the state's "justice" system, they concealed *inculpatory* evidence from the grand jury, at least where Wilson was concerned. But bear in mind that this was NEVER a homicide investigation: From the beginning the police identified Wilson as the victim, and both they and the prosecutors were building a case against Brown. So in a sense all McCulloch had to do was use the old "bury the Brady" routine.
If Brown had survived and been put on trial for assaulting Wilson, what Alizadeh did would constitute reversible error. As it stands, it should be grounds for disbarment (and should be grounds for criminal charges, if prosecutors weren't blessed with near-absolute immunity).
xxx
November 26, 2014
How Robert McCulloch Hoodwinked The Ferguson Grand Jury
A shocking deception on the part of the St. Louis County Prosecutor taints the entire Grand Jury verdict.
By karoli
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/shocking-mistake-in-darren-wilson-grand-jury-364273731666
This is how the Grand Jury arrived at their verdict. Early on in the proceedings, Assistant District Attorney Alizadeh handed out copies of a law that was ruled unconstitutional in 1985. In essence it set the bar for use of excessive force lower than is permissible. Simply put, ADA Alizadeh told the jury that it was permissible to shoot a fleeing suspect.
![[]](http://crooksandliars.com/files/images/14/11/screenshot_2014-11-26_20.41.23.png)
Tennessee v. Garner made the statute Alizadeh distributed to the Grand Jury unconstitutional, but that didn't stop her from distributing it to grand jurors at the outset in order to set their minds in a place where Darren Wilson was justified in what he did.
Then, at the very end of the proceedings on November 21st, Alizadeh "corrected" the record. Sort of.
For the entire proceeding, jurors weighed the evidence in light of a law that was deemed unconstitutional almost 30 years ago. Then they corrected the record at the very end, but by then it was too late.
To me, this invalidates the entire decision. While I believe jurors acted in good faith, the prosecutor did not, and intentionally confused jurors as to the applicable law. Correcting it at the end is not adequate or acceptable.
Unfortunately, there is no way to force Bob McCulloch to prosecute Darren Wilson. But Eric Holder has promised an aggressive investigation of Ferguson police. That's good, but he might want to broaden that investigation to include St. Louis County prosecutors.
How can anyone believe this Grand Jury proceeding has a shred of integrity? I don't blame the jurors; I blame the prosecutor.
http://crooksandliars.com/…/how-robert-mcculloch-hoodwinked…
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