Yesterday, 1/22/2014, the NC Attorney General took the voluntary manslaughter case against CMPD officer Randall Kerrick before a grand jury. Since then, it's been a wild ride. In an extraordinarily rare move, the grand jury refused to indict Kerrick but, in a handwritten note, asked prosecutors for a lesser charge.
Steve Ward, a retired prosecutor who worked for 25 years under former District Attorney Peter Gilchrist, said he’s never heard of a grand jury requesting a lesser charge.
Grand juries meet in private. Attorneys on either side are not permitted to attend. In the Kerrick case, the evidence was presented by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police investigator Edwin Morales and Scott Williams of the State Bureau of Investigation.
The fact that the jury chose not to indict is extremely rare, Ward said. Of the thousands of cases his office sent to a grand jury every year, only a few came back without indictments, he said.
“I’m talking about less than 10 a year.”
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/...
Local and breaking coverage is available here.
More on today's developments below.
Today, January 23, we learned the Attorney General will resubmit the case before a different grand jury.
[AG Roy] Cooper cited a shortage of grand jury members in announcing that he will try for another indictment.
A grand jury normally has 18 members. But only 14 were on hand Tuesday to hear the evidence against Kerrick presented by CMPD and state investigators, court officials said Wednesday.
Twelve votes are needed for an indictment. In Kerrick’s case, that meant as few as three jurors could block one.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/...
The Ferrell family released a statement through attorney Christopher Chestnut.
"While we are pleased that the Attorney General is going to resubmit the charges against Randall Kerrick to a new Grand Jury on Monday, we are skeptical given their inability to secure an indictment yesterday. Jonathan Ferrell was a quality human being who worked hard and cared for those around him. He deserved better," the statement read. "Whatever the findings of this Grand Jury, we will do everything in our power to ensure that his family realizes justice for Jonathan and all Americans."
The Attorney General's decision was lauded by African-American community leaders.
African-American leaders, who expressed anger and frustration at the grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer for the shooting death of an unarmed black man, welcomed the quick response from prosecutors.
“Many of us were disheartened after the news we heard yesterday. It seemed too familiar to us that the life of an African-American man was not valued,” said Dr. Dwayne Walker, pastor of the Little Rock AME Zion Church of Charlotte.
“It’s good that Attorney General Cooper has taken another look and made this announcement. It gives me hope that justice will be finally be done.”
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/...
I've got too much passion and not nearly enough legal smarts to offer a lot of commentary, but I think the Charlotte Observer's Fannie Flono
did a fine job in her editorial today. She opens with this.
Should the N.C. Attorney General's Office have another go at charges against a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer who killed an unarmed man believed to have been seeking help after an accident? Yes.
Only more questions remain after a grand jury's decision Tuesday not to indict 28-year-old Officer Randall Kerrick for voluntary manslaughter in connection with the death of 24-year-old Jonathan Ferrell last September. The public needs answers about what happened that night as well as reassurances about police actions. For many, this episode has engendered fear, not trust, in those actions.
And closes with this.
The public also needs to know that the CMPD is using this tragedy to make changes in training and protocols to help young officers make better decisions. I've said this before. Being a police officer is a dangerous, stressful and scary job. No one envies them their work, or the hard choices they must make in a moment's time. But we as a community should not accept as inevitable that unarmed citizens will die during encounters with police.
Read more here: http://obsdailyviews.blogspot.com/...
We have a long way to go.
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