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I've been banging away on my keyboard. Here's some new articles. In The Armed Citizen, we have: Soldier, Officer, CitizenAccoutrements for training, and What’s your Tueller Distance? In the book reviews there's Prepared: Surviving Worst Case Scenarios. Enjoy!

The Justice System

I do not have the time nor inclination to search for, a television reporter reporting on the "false bill" result for the Grand Jury indictment against Officer Darren Wilson, for the death of Michael Brown. This reporter wanted this to go to a jury anyway, "so all the facts can come out and we all know."

Evidently, this person is not very cognizant of the process the law takes from crime to either conviction or acquittal.

I do not possess a law degree, nor am I directly or indirectly involved in the justice system. This knowledge is acquired by intense reading on a wide variety of subjects. Just as an aside, not all States have a "Grand Jury" system, some use preliminary hearings. Grand Juries are convened to investigate felonies only.

First step, of course, is that a person must violate a law. There are two types of laws from a violation point of view: Misdemeanors and felonies. The difference is the length of imprisonment. Misdemeanors are punishable my no more than "11 months and 29 days confinement," while felonies are punishable by "more than one year of confinement."

Second, the crime is discovered, the police investigate, determine the suspect(s), then apprehend the suspect(s).

Third, the suspect(s) are then referred to the District Attorney for charges. If the DA believes the State can win the case, then the DA assigns a prosecuting attorney, who then files the actual charges and refers these charges to the Grand Jury. In TV trials, you've watched the attorneys from both sides argue over the guilt or innocence of the accused.

This not TV, and this is not that process anyway. The Grand Jury is an investigation by citizens (a "jury of your peers") to determine if enough evidence exists to convict the accused. There is no "defense" side of things here. It is just the prosecutor presenting the evidence that they will use in the actual trial to try and convict the accused. The prosecutor also does not have to present any exculpatory evidence (evidence which shows you are not the perpetrator of the crime). The Grand Jury can also subpoena witnesses to testify. If a Grand Jury returns a "true bill," the members believe that the evidence presented has enough merit and weight to show that a crime has been committed and the accused is probably guilty. Then we get to the TV part, with the prosecution and defense... Just to make it clear, if the prosecutor can't convince the Grand Jury you committed the crime in question, then the prosecutor will not win in a real trial.

 

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