Defense attorney Mike Cavalluzzi and former FBI profiler Jim Clemente discuss the Ferguson grand jury process and testimony after the panel decided not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown.
Cavalluzzi said he does not believe a grand jury was appropriate in this case, since so much evidence and testimony is not taken into account as it would be during a full trial. “The only way to adequately and accurately determine the voracity of what’s being said, is to have a full trial, in which so much more is available at an actual trial,” he said.
Also addressed is an ongoing federal investigation of the case – relating to whether the shooting death represented a civil rights violation – and both Clemente and Cavalluzzi believe this process should be completely separate from any findings from state and local proceedings.
“I’m not even making a comment on whether or not Darren Wilson should be prosecuted for this. But I absolutely, 100 percent believe that Robert McCulloch was not the right person to be in charge of this investigation and prosecution,” Cavalluzzi said.
The most crucial part of the case that needs to be examined is the testimony related to whether Brown was being fired upon while running away from the officer, according to Clemente. “We know that six shots missed Michael Brown. Were those shots that were fired by the police officer when he was running away? That’s a question we should be answering through a trial, we should not be just throwing this to a grand jury.”
Clemente said that after personally going through some of the evidence testimony, he is puzzled by some of the statements given to the grand jury by officer Wilson about the events of the shooting. “If he was fleeing, and he made the shots, that is absolutely not legal,” he said. There are just no circumstances under which a police officer should be shooting someone who is unarmed, who is just running away from him.”
Watch the full episode to hear the panel also weigh in on the latest rape allegations against Bill Cosby, as well as the decision by the University of Virginia to suspend fraternities on campus after an article appeared in Rolling Stone alleging a series of horrific gang rapes of multiple women at one a frat house on campus.
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