Posted on 07/14/2015 5:32:40 AM PDT by Prolixus
Earlier this year, the Texas Legislature passed a law outlawing what is known as the “pick-a-pal system” for grand jury selection. Unlike the trial juries we are all familiar with, in which the jury is picked randomly with attorneys questioning possible jurors for bias or prejudice, many grand juries had been picked by judges by offering friends or associates in the justice system the license of nominating prospective jurors or even serving as grand jurors themselves.
Research has shown that probation department employees, police officers, bail bondsmen and even court bailiffs decided who served on the grand jury. The problem? Though the grand jury serves as a “sword” determining probable cause that a crime has been committed — the decision eventually leading to a suspect’s actual trial — it also serves as a “shield” protecting us from injustice by the government, including the district attorney, the police, even judges. Having cops on the grand jury reviewing the actions of the police corrupts that process. It would be as if your daughter was arrested after being in a two-car accident and the jury was made up of the other car owner’s family and friends.
But McLennan County District Judge Ralph Strother doesn’t seem to see a problem in this.
With all the problems of the pick-a-pal system judge, Strother decided that he would all but ignore the reason for outlawing it when he decided not only to allow a Waco detective to serve on a grand jury expected to investigate the biker shootings at Twin Peaks but also appointed him as foreman. In doing so, the judge’s ignorance of the purpose of the grand jury was exposed when the Tribune-Herald reported that Strother stated, in justifying his appointment, “Who is better qualified in criminal law than somebody who practices it all the time?” If the judge’s logic was correct, why even have a grand jury reviewing police arrests? Simply let a cop arrest someone and then take him straight to trial without any citizen “shield” reviewing the arrest. Why even have trials, as police practice criminal law “all the time” and the police already supposedly know who’s guilty and who’s not?
Strother also seems to forget it is his responsibility to determine the competence of a grand juror, knowing that the grand jury may be reviewing not only the shootings but, conceivably, the actions of the Waco Police Department. The district attorney, of course, in pursuing a conviction, concurs with having a detective who previously has worked closely with his office serving on the grand jury, all but claiming he can’t be kept off the grand jury even if prejudiced against the arrested or biased in favor of his fellow officers.
With the possibility that one or more officers may have violated policy or the law by firing into a crowd and conceivably killing or injuring an innocent civilian or someone who was defending himself from an attack, having a Waco detective on the grand jury deciding if he is going to indict one of his fellow officers is more than problematic. It borders on judicial incompetence, especially after the Tribune-Herald reported that the detective stated that he was “not really” ever involved in the investigation. Let’s see: 177 arrests after nine dead and 20 wounded, a department working the most complex investigation imaginable and a Waco police detective was “not really” involved?
McLennan County bench
The judicial clown car of McLennan County just seems to continue down the road, consistently adding riders along the way. From Justice of the Peace Pete Peterson, a former state trooper, setting million-dollar bail amounts based on “cookie-cutter” arrest warrants to “send a message” — try finding that as a reason for bail in the law — to district court judges limiting bond hearings for their own personal convenience, a district attorney allowing the grand jury to be corrupted and a grand juror/police detective “not really” involved in the investigation making determinations as to who does and does not go to trial, the idea of criminal collusion between the bench, the prosecutor and the police is a viable belief, whether true or not.
The bench’s gross incompetence and continued hubris seem to be penalizing the innocent and could possibly even prevent those who may be guilty of murder from ever being successfully tried and punished. Which raises another question: Is the McLennan County bench itself guilty of subverting the course of justice?
The bench’s gross incompetence and continued hubris seem to be penalizing the innocent and could possibly even prevent those who may be guilty of murder from ever being successfully tried and punished. Which raises another question: Is the McLennan County bench itself guilty of subverting the course of justice?
>>> The judicial clown car of McLennan County just seems to continue down the road, consistently adding riders along the way. From Justice of the Peace Pete Peterson, a former state trooper, setting million-dollar bail amounts based on “cookie-cutter” arrest warrants to “send a message” — try finding that as a reason for bail in the law — to district court judges limiting bond hearings for their own personal convenience, a district attorney allowing the grand jury to be corrupted and a grand juror/police detective “not really” involved in the investigation making determinations as to who does and does not go to trial, the idea of criminal collusion between the bench, the prosecutor and the police is a viable belief, whether true or not. <<<
No additional comment required.
Grand juries are prosecutorial rubber stamps. In reality, if a prosecutor wants someone indicted, the jury could be made up entirely of the dead and have the same indictment result.
Yet, I have seen them return "no true bill." And with 177 "conspirators" a reasonable person would expect that at least a few would not be indicted.
5.56mm
The criminal justice business, tired of being watched by civilians, also obtained a mechanism to avoid grand jury altogether, and nearly all states allow a DA to issue an "Information" without any presentation to or consultation with or agreement from a grand jury, that the state has enough evidence to justify putting the accused through ordeal of trial.
RIMMER: It's time we decided who's going to take the one man escape pod.
CAT: How?
RIMMER: Well, if you'll just bear with me, I think I've devised a fair and equitable system of choosing who should survive. It's based on age, rank, seniority, usefulness, and to cut a long story short, it's me. I was a stunned as you are, which is why I demanded a recount. Well, blow me if it didn't come out as me again. Keys.
After considerable consideration we find ourselves blameless...
What could possibly go wrong?
OTOH, perhaps biker gangs will need to develop a shoot first policy out of shear self defense in any contact with the police.
I thought Texas was supposed to be some bastion of liberty and freedom that so many people on this forum want to run to.
“Corrupt” doesn’t come close to what Waco PD and politics has become. The citizens need to clean house and start over from scratch. If not, here’s to the biker law suits bankrupting the city and county.
It was until liberal headed Kalifornians and Yankees invaded.
>>> I thought Texas was supposed to be some bastion of liberty and freedom that so many people on this forum want to run to. <<<
It was run by Democrats for over a hundred years and we’re still trying to flush all the toilets.
“tie me kangaroo down, sport, tie me kangaroo down...”
” and nearly all states allow a DA to issue an “Information” without any presentation to or consultation with or agreement from a grand jury, that the state has enough evidence to justify putting the accused through ordeal of trial. “
Texas requires GJ for felonies.
“I thought Texas was supposed to be some bastion of liberty and freedom that so many people on this forum want to run to.”
Biker gangs are a threat to our freedoms.
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