ERIC GARNER, CHOKED TO DEATH BY NYPD

[username]

Legal Experts Weigh-In on Grand Jury Decision



[i]While legal experts note it's impossible to know how the grand jurors reached their conclusion, they say the Garner case, like Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri, once again raised concerns about the influence local prosecutors have over the process of charging the police officers they work with on a daily basis.

That is an extremely incestuous relationship. It seems to me that whenever there are questions about an officer involved death, a special independent prosecutor ought to be brought in as opposed to a local prosecutor.

I recently learned from a defense attorney that our local judges try very, very hard not to piss off our local prosecutors. Why?? It turns out the prosecutors have some ability (I don't know how far that extends) to request which judge hears their case(s). If a judge is known as anti-prosecutor, he/she can seemingly end up with a much lighter case load as opposed to another judge.

Isn't that k-nuts? There's a disincentive out there for them to side with defense attorneys on cases that aren't clearly cut and dry. Crazy.