There is a provision of Missouri Law -- MO Rev Stat § 56.110 -- that empowers "the court having criminal jurisdiction" to "appoint some other attorney to prosecute" if the prosecuting attorney "be interested." (The term "be interested" is an awkward legal way to refer to conflict-of-interest or bias. The statute dates from the turn of the 20th century.)
The court with jurisdiction over Darren Wilson's case is the 21st Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri. That means the power to appoint a special prosecutor is held by Maura McShane, the Presiding Judge of the 21st Circuit.
During the grand jury in the shooting of Michael Brown, Assistant District Attorney Kathi Alizadeh instructed grand jurors on how to decide the case based on a statute that was invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court two decades ago. As MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell points out, that statute had not been valid for the entirety of Alizadeh's legal career. That statute said that officers can use any force they deem necessary to achieve the arrest of a fleeing suspect. It does not preclude deadly force, saying only that officers are "justified in the use of such physical force as he or she reasonably believes is immediately necessary to effect the arrest or to prevent the escape from custody." read more
Let's start with McCulloch's refusal to step aside in this case. The people in and around Ferguson gave a vote of no confidence, in effect, to McCulloch when 70,000 of them signed a petition demanding that he recuse himself. McCulloch's history is problematic, at best, and his alignment with the cops unquestioned. His father was a cop, who was killed in the line of duty by an African-American person. When the county police clearly were overreacting in handling the protests immediately following the killing, and Gov. Jay Nixon called in the state highway patrol to try to calm the situation down, McCulloch loudly and publicly criticized him for "denigrat[ing] the men and women of the county police." McCulloch's bias going into this grand jury proceeding was unquestioned, certainly in the community, and his refusal to step aside guaranteed that there would be a high level of distrust in the proceedings.
President Barack Obama decided in recent weeks to authorize a more expansive mission for the military in Afghanistan in 2015 than originally planned, a move that ensures American troops will have a direct role in fighting in the war-ravaged country for at least another year. Obama's order allows American forces to carry out missions against the Taliban and other militant groups threatening American troops or the Afghan government, a broader mission than the president described to the public earlier this year, according to several administration, military and congressional officials with knowledge of the decision. The new authorization also allows American jets, bombers and drones to support Afghan troops on combat missions.
Health care economist Jonathan Gruber recently claimed at a policy conference that lack of political transparency helped Congressional Democrats pass the health care bill into law, attributing its success to "the stupidity of the American voter." The comments have caused a firestorm of criticism and may even spark a Congressional investigation into the law. But despite the uproar, Gruber's analysis does not reflect reality.
Just have to laugh at this, so over the top one has to question how he thinks he stays safe all his life.
Posted by moneywar at 2014-12-07 11:05 PM | Reply
Keeping my nose out of other peoples business. THAT'S how.