Ohio prosecutor won't release Tamir Rice grand jury testimony

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

US | Thu Jan 7, 2016 9:39am EST

Ohio prosecutor won't release Tamir Rice grand jury testimony

CLEVELAND | BY KIM PALMER

An Ohio prosecutor has rebuffed a request by the Cleveland branch of the NAACP for the release of grand jury testimony in the police shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, saying it would put those on the jury at risk of threats.

In response, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Vice President James Hardiman said Thursday the group was disappointed by the decision and would file a motion with the judge who presided over the grand jury to release the testimony.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said in a statement late Wednesday the NAACP were taking issue with the grand jury secrecy only because the group disagreed with the decision not to charge the officers involved in the November 2014 shooting.

The NAACP had sent a letter to McGinty's office earlier on Wednesday requesting that the grand jury testimony be made public in a case that was one of several nationwide that has fueled scrutiny and outrage over the use of deadly force by police against minorities. Rice was black and the officers involved are white.

"Grand jury secrecy is designed to allow grand jurors and witnesses to perform their legal duties without fear of retaliation or recrimination," McGinty said, and releasing the testimony would set a "dangerous precedent" and violate the law.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-police-cleveland-idUSKBN0UL1QC20160107

[avebury]

1. The grand jury testimony

should be released otherwise the public will never know if the Prosecutor's office tanked the process. After Ferguson and after reading the book Chasing Justice, I do not assume that all Prosecutors actually do their job.

[Human101948]

2. Depends on whose definition of "doing their job."

We have seen time and again that the prosecutor are the protectors of the police, no matter how egregious their activities.

Just look at the Chicago mess.

[avebury]

5. If a prosecutor goes inot a Grand Jury and intentionally

tanks the process, he/she is not doing his/her job. It is akin to rigging the process. Too many cops have prosecutors in their back pocket which allows them to do as they please without consequence and the prosecutors are aiding and abetting them in their criminal acts.

[TipTok]

3. The folks on that jury could reasonably expected to be nervous

... based on how high emotions are running over this issue.

It isn't totally unreasonable to hold onto it or at least delay release.

[Takket]

4. can't the names of the jury members just be redacted?