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A Case That is Still an Enigma

Ruth Marcus on

WASHINGTON -- The grand jury's decision not to indict Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of teenager Michael Brown was the worst possible outcome -- except for one in which passion overwhelmed facts and Wilson was forced to stand trial despite a lack of adequate evidence.

I hear your gasp, readers. A young man is dead. He should still be alive. It would be criminally naive to think that race had nothing to do with the fact of his shooting, and the interaction that preceded it.

As a matter of maintaining calm and assuaging public concern about a criminal justice system that seems inevitably tilted in the direction of law enforcement and against young black men, an indictment and trial would, no doubt, have been the preferable outcome. A public trial would have offered more airing of the evidence, providing additional closure for society and confidence in the outcome of the case.

At least in theory, anyway. Previous cases -- recall the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin -- and the facts in this one suggest an eventual jury verdict to find Wilson not guilty of any charges, a result that would have further inflamed those who see the system as irredeemably biased.

Yet the decision before the grand jury involved a single incident, discrete facts about the encounter and a criminal justice system properly focused not on the broader societal implications of the episode but on the two individuals involved, the shooter and the victim.

St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch's Monday night news conference with his complaints about "the 24-hour news cycle and its insatiable appetite for something, for anything to talk about," was inappropriate verging on embarrassing.

 

But the prosecutor's unusual move to release transcripts of grand jury testimony served as an important and welcome relief valve, adding evidence to a situation understandably overwhelmed by emotion.

Granted, it's impossible to immediately and fully digest the reams of testimony presented to the grand jury. Still, transcripts of contradictory testimony from Wilson; Dorian Johnson, the friend who was with Brown at the time of the shooting; and several witnesses buttress the jurors' decision not to bring charges.

The outcome could have gone the other way, but convincing a jury of Wilson's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt -- in particular, that he did not act in lawful self-defense -- would have been a struggle.

The accounts, unsurprisingly, differ from the outset.

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