The legality of this shooting is open to question, as is whether there was an immediate danger that justified deadly force, but I could not vote to convict on any serious felony. I’m glad that the world has one less criminal harming the innocent, thanks to this shooting.
/johnny
http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/home/8494699-172/orleans-grand-jury-takes-no
Orleans grand jury takes no action in Merritt Landry shooting - 3/1/14
BY JOHN SIMERMAN
jsimerman@theadvocate.com
There’s an old adage in criminal justice circles: A good prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich.
Merritt Landry, it seems, is no ham sandwich.
An Orleans Parish grand jury ended its six-month tenure Thursday by taking no action in the controversial case of the 33-year-old Marigny homeowner who last July shot Marshall Coulter, a 14-year-old boy who had hopped over Landry’s gate and into his yard.
The grand jury had been hearing evidence against Landry in the shooting over several months. Landry was booked two days after the early-morning incident on suspicion of attempted murder. He appeared last week at the criminal courthouse with his lawyers, drawing speculation that Landry had voluntarily appeared before the grand jury.
The grand jury’s deliberations are secret under state law, and neither Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office nor Landry’s attorneys would say whether he in fact testified.
A spokesman said Cannizzaro was disappointed at the failure of the required nine out of 12 grand jury members to agree on an indictable offense in the July 26 shooting.
Assistant District Attorney Christopher Bowman said Cannizzaro is weighing his options on what to do next. He could bring the case before a new, incoming grand jury, charge Landry in a bill of information or decline to pursue charges against him.
“At this point we consider this to be a very open investigation,” Bowman said, declining to explain why the case went before the grand jury in the first place. But Bowman insisted that Cannizzaro was not trying to shirk a political hot potato by taking the case before the grand jury instead of simply charging Landry directly.
With their subpoena powers, grand juries can be powerful investigative tools. They also can serve to give prosecutors a better inkling about how trial jurors might think about a case. Even so, only aggravated crimes must first get the nod from a grand jury to move forward.
When they do try, prosecutors rarely fail to secure an indictment. It has occurred only a few times in Cannizzaro’s five years in office.
“It has not happened often that we have attempted to obtain an indictment and could not obtain it,” Bowman said. “We feel as though we presented a strong case. It’s disappointing nine members couldn’t agree.”
Landry, an inspector for the city’s Historic District Landmarks Commission, hails from a family of prominent St. Bernard Parish officials. He was freed on bail not long after his arrest and returned to work in late November.
Landry did not appear in court on Thursday. His attorneys, Kevin Boshea and Roger Jordan, declined to comment on the turn of events, citing grand jury secrecy as they left the courthouse Thursday, seven months and a day after Landry shot Coulter in the head, seriously injuring the teenager.
The incident sparked community outrage - on one side from supporters and neighbors angry over Landry’s arrest for shooting an intruder on his property, and on the other from people who doubted Landry had a justifiable reason for firing at Coulter.
After an investigation, New Orleans police concluded Landry fired on the boy from about 30 feet away. Coulter was unarmed and “not posing an imminent threat,” according to police.
The arrest inspired a campaign on Landry’s behalf and a defense fund. Supporters argue that Landry was protecting his home and his then-pregnant wife. She was due to give birth in days.
Coulter has undergone a series of hospital procedures after suffering a gunshot wound to the head. In the meantime, Cannizzaro had said he would present evidence in the case to a grand jury. Bowman blamed scheduling problems with witnesses for delays in that process.
Tulane University law professor Pam Metzger called the lack of an indictment from the grand jury “very bizarre,” considering that prosecutors hold an overwhelming advantage in those proceedings. Lawyers for a defendant are not allowed in the grand jury room, much less permitted to present their side of the story while the citizen panel decides whether probable cause exists to indict.
“Probable cause is an incredibly low standard. One message may be, they don’t have enough evidence, or they didn’t present their evidence well,” Metzger said.
Occasionally, “runaway” grand juries will simply filibuster cases they don’t like, but that doesn’t seem to be the story in Landry’s case, Metzger said. If Landry did in fact testify, she said, it would stand as a bold legal gambit.
“He may have persuaded them not to indict,” she said. “It certainly would offer an explanation. It’s easier to indict somebody when you’ve never looked them in the eye.”