This time against the officer who killed Rayshard Brooks. I stand by my earlier assessment of felony murder as a tactic by prosecutors hoping to avoid a trial. However, there is a twist in this case. The D.A. is a Democrat in a runoff election, and thus has a powerful incentive to charge aggressively in order to ensure the Democratic primary base in that heavily-black district will vote to re-elect him.
Going for a capital charge has a potentially huge downside if the officer defends himself rather than pleading to avoid the death penalty. You almost certainly can't convict an officer who shot a suspect while carrying out an arrest against a subject who had violently resisted for the underlying felony, without which you can't convict on the capital crime either. If these elevated charges go down in court, the Atlanta Police will face another riot.
Does the jury then convict to avoid the riots, and send an officer of the law to his death? That would be unprecedented in my lifetime, but so is much that we are seeing today.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also is reporting that the GBI has opened an investigationn into that same DA regarding his [alleged] use of a nonprofit to funnel at least $140,000 in city of Atlanta funds to supplement his salary.
ReplyDeleteI watched Howard's press conference on the charging this afternoon: he spent the entire time presenting the prosecutor's case--which is to say he spent the entire time poisoning the jury pool.
While I don't agree that this was a righteous shoot (engendering civil war in the house), there's no way these cops can get a fair trial after Howard's performance.
And one of the two cops apparently flipped to become a "cooperating witness." There's no way he has any credibility now. Either he sold his testimony like a Thursday night hooker in order to get lighter charges and sentences, or he was brow-beaten into flipping on pain of harsher charges and sentences. Given Howard's performance at the presser, I lean toward the latter, but either way, it's clear that that second cop, if he makes it to the witness stand, won't be testifying; it'll be the prosecutor testifying through the cop's mouth.
Eric Hines
According to the lawyer, that statement of cooperation was false.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/ajccourts/status/1273345188191232002?s=21
One more thing (to coin a phrase):
ReplyDeleteDoes the jury then convict to avoid the riots....
It did not in the Rodney King case. But these are different times and a markedly different city.
Eric Hines
They all need spiritual blessings and exorcisms at this point.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIgD2uYzeYU
ReplyDeleteThere are some reports that Trump/Melania did an exorcism or two on the white house, using the Vatican's exorcists.
That is... interesting, if true.
These all fulfill the whole "magic" domain I wrote about. Egyptian magicians vs Moses type stuff. But the Church of Rome is closer on the magician side or priest of Jupiter than a priest of YHVH.