Posted on 10/22/2014 5:55:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
An addendum to Ed’s post this morning. Per WaPo, it’s not just the forensic evidence that’s backing Wilson up.
[M]ore than a half-dozen unnamed black witnesses have provided testimony to a St. Louis County grand jury that supports Wilson’s account of events of Aug. 9, according to several people familiar with the investigation who spoke with The Washington Post.
Some of the physical evidence — including blood spatter analysis, shell casings and ballistics tests — also supports Wilson’s account of the shooting, the Post sources said, which cast Brown as an aggressor who threatened the officer’s life. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they are prohibited from publicly discussing the case…
Benjamin L. Crump, a lawyer for the Brown family, said Brown’s family and supporters will not be persuaded by the autopsy report or eyewitness statements that back Wilson’s account of the incident…
Exactly how high Brown’s hands were has been inconsistent in the accounts, and at least one witness said that after Brown was shot, he appeared to take a step toward Wilson. That witness said, however, Brown had his arms around his stomach before hitting the ground.
The Post doesn’t specify which details from Wilson’s account were supported by the witnesses (none of whom want to be named, of course, lest they face reprisals for being honest). Did they corroborate the fight in the front seat of the squad car when, Wilson claims, Brown grabbed his gun? The physical evidence supports that too: One forensic pathologist who reviewed the autopsy report noted that Brown’s hand wound wouldn’t have had gunpowder particulate in it unless his hand had been on or right next to Wilson’s gun. Two shell casings were also found in Wilson’s squad car, per the Post, supporting the fact that the gun was discharged twice inside the vehicle. Or did the witnesses corroborate the fatal shooting later, after Brown had moved away from the car and Wilson had gotten out? That’s what the case will turn on: If Wilson ends up being indicted, prosecutors will argue that, yes, Brown might have reached for Wilson’s gun but the subsequent shooting was unnecessary. Brown was already wounded; Wilson was shooting out of rage, not to repel a mortal threat.
Realistically, though, how likely is it that he’s going to be indicted at this point? Crump says he has seven witnesses who’ll say that Wilson gunned Brown down unjustifiably. Great, says the defense, we have seven witnesses who say the opposite plus a pile of forensic evidence that shows Brown, who’d just committed a robbery at the local convenience store, not only assaulted a police officer but attempted to seize his firearm. There’s little doubt, barring some bombshell evidence that the public doesn’t know about, that Wilson’s not going to be convicted. The question now is whether he’ll be charged. One theory for all the leaks lately is that law enforcement is trying to prepare the public for the fact that grand jury is unlikely to return an indictment, but I don’t know: Given what Crump said in the excerpt above plus protesters vowing that “it’s going to be a war” if Wilson isn’t charged, sounds like releasing the evidence early isn’t going to calm anyone down. On the contrary, it may be that this is being leaked because Wilson supporters fear that he’ll be unfairly indicted anyway for political reasons, even though there’s no probable cause to think he murdered Brown. That’s probably the outcome city leaders would prefer — indictment followed by acquittal so that they can say the system took the incident seriously enough to force Wilson to defend his actions in open court. Think that result would calm people down? Me neither.
One more odd detail from WaPo’s story: “The Post sources said the levels in Brown’s body may have been high enough to trigger hallucinations.” Er, okay, but isn’t the fact that Brown had just apparently committed a crime minutes before Wilson rolled up a more likely explanation for why he got aggressive? He had obvious reasons to fear police scrutiny at the time. Reefer madness seems like an odd theory of the case.
Ya think Holder is going to leak the names of these black witnesses?
Did anyone else watch FoxNews tonight (Greta Show) and see where the “crawler” messages at the bottom said “Autopsy Results Cast Doubt on Cop’s Story”? I can’t believe that. Do they have a little lefty on their Greta staff intentionally misrepresenting the autopsy results?
Good point. That would send a message to all the plantation slaves to stray no longer.
I was wondering the same thing. That was not discussed on the show and there is nothing online about new results showing that Brown was running away when shot. I think somebody hacked their chyron.
Well they'd better flush the little cockroach out. Credibility is a precious thing to a 'news' organization, it wouldn't take much to shatter it.
Why let facts get in the way of a good story.
Trying to catch up with this story…I was at the gym, switching between CNN, where some miserable “disenfranchised” somewhat black woman was furious and Fox, that declared that Wilson’s story isn’t standing up to forensics.
WTF?
Oh, Snap!
I read that smoking today’s hi-power pot in a blunt really increases the high. The tobacco and the pot together.
This has been one leaky proceeding. I hope the jury members can stay anonymous.
Knocking Wilson's story keeps the peace.
Just get us past the election.
Neither will the "demonstrators" who are poised to riot and/or loot if the grand jury's decision doesn't go their way.
I would say that there is a better than even chance that Wilson will be indicted for political reasons. The politicians think that a trial will calm the restless natives.
But that will only put off the inevitable. Any fair jury will acquit Wilson and as the article states
Brown’s family and supporters will not be persuaded by the autopsy report or eyewitness statements that back Wilson’s account of the incident
Or to extrapolate from that statement; the Browns and their supporters will accept nothing less than a conviction for murder.
When Wilson receives a NO BILL or is acquitted there will be riots
Exhibit A: Zimmerman, George
Obama and Holder have enflamed the racism of the urban black community to the point of a hysterical tunnel vision of rage.
Evidence is irrelevant. The racial grievance industry has a show trial to put on.
Apparently they do things differently in St. Louis. Where I practice, you never get a peep out of a grand jury.
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