Contrary to what a lot of people think, Wilson is really not out

[avebury]

of the woods for local criminal prosecution.

It is pretty clear that the Prosecutor's office ran the GJ hearings on behalf of Wilson. Had the GJ voted to indict Wilson on any one of the potential charges and the Prosecutor's office forced to actually prosecute Wilson, everyone knows that they would have happily thrown the case under the bus and thereby create double jeopardy which would have protected Wilson from any further local criminal prosecution.

If I am correct, I don't think that murder and murder related charges have a statute of limitation. If this is correct, then another Prosecutor at a later date could either reconvene a new GJ or just file charges and Wilson is at risk of prosecution again.

Ferguson needs to make it their #1 priority to get McCullough voted out of office and instead get a Prosecutor who does not live in the back pocked of the Ferguson PD.

[Xipe Totec]

1. That's why McCullough cleverly waited until after the elections to release the results.

How convenient that it took just long enough so that the elections were over and people could not protest at the ballot box.

[davidpdx]

2. I think that's highly unlikely

I hate to sounds like a negative nelly, but even the Federal charges are a long shot unless new evidence is found. With the victim dead and unable to testify the prosecutors are bending over backwards to not indict Wilson.

[atreides1]

8. It's not so much the evidence

It's how the evidence was presented...another prosecutor could present the evidence in a completely different way, and perhaps get a different result!

[Sheldon Cooper]

3. I doubt very much that anything further will happen to Wilson in criminal courts.

About all we can hope for now is a wrongful death civil suit against Wilson, preferably bankrupting him.

[justamama83]

4. I don't think he can be sued personally

From what I have read in a few other threads he has protection from a civil lawsuit being filed against him and his personal assets. The family will have to go after the city/police dept.

[NutmegYankee]

5. Qualified immunity.

Only the town can be sued.

[Lee-Lee]

6. I'm about 75% through reading all that was released

And I can't see any prosecutor bringing this to trial from what I have seen so far.

The forensic evidence all seems to support Wilsons claims.

There are conflicting witness statements. The ones that say he was shot with his hands up are inconsistent with each other and the forensic evidence- some claim he was on his knees with Wilson over him, some claim he was standing there and was shot. None of those accounts jive with the fact that blood was found 20-25 feet behind Brown, indicating at some point he was farther away and came closer. The witness accounts that say he came back toward Wilson are more consistent and supported by the forensics.

While reading never gives the exact same impression as seeing and hearing, I can tell from the transcripts that given the difficulty some had just in interviews with investigators who were not hostile that they would be horrible on the stand under cross examination by a defense attorney.

You've got science that pretty much goes Wilsons way. You've got conflicting statements from various witness accounts, but the ones supporting Wilson are more consistent and from what appear to be more reliable/credible witnesses.

That alone makes it hard.

Couple that with Brown having just committed a violent crime, and being high. The jury will be told that.

There is no way, unless some bombshell I haven't seen yet appears, that you will get a jury to convict. Beyond a reasonable doubt is a high standard folks.

[avebury]

7. Did anybody ask, in the GJ hearing, if

Wilson was allowed to leave the scene with his patrol car? This would be an important point. The patrol car was part of the crime scene and if he was allowed to leave the area, by himself and before the car had been processed for evidence, there would been a break in the chain of custody regarding any evidence purported to have been found in connection with the car. Under those circumstances you could claim more reasonable doubt on the credibility of any evidence linked to the car and as such, the evidence should never be allowed to be presented in court (either GJ hearing or criminal case). If the police on the scene did allow Wilson to leave with the car before it was processed for evidence that would be, at minimum, gross incompetence and dereliction of duty, and at the worst, potentially make them complicit with what happened after the fact.