Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/02/breonna-taylor-grand-jury-testimony-released.html
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I haven’t seen even a portion of these releases yet, so I don’t know how egregious this is going to be, but no matter what they show I hope people realize that the prosecutor is nearly total control of what goes on in the grand jury. The old cliche that a decent prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich is only barely hyperbole–when you can pick and choose what evidence is presented, how it is presented, and just as importantly what evidence isn’t presented in a non-adversarial setting, it’s not exactly difficult to convince a group of folks that there’s at least enough evidence to justify a trial.
So when prosecutors in Kentucky or Missouri or wherever throw up their hands and tell us “what can we do? the grand jury decided and our hands are tied…” they are relying on the public’s fundamental ignorance of how much power they have over the proceeding.
(it works in the converse, too; just because someone is indicted just means a prosecutor wanted them to be indicted–it really shouldn’t carry much more weight than being charged in the first place)
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From what I’ve read about this, the jurors were never offered or given an opportunity to indict the two cops, that’s why the push to release the tapes.
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I believe some blind people can listen to podcasts and transcripts at up to 3.5x speed (I bump boring content I feel compelled to finish up to x2 sometimes), so there are almost certainly some reporters who won’t need the full 14 hours to digest these tapes.
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If I was had a news organization, and a bit of warning, this could be a huge scoop, broken hours before the rest of the commenters.
Break the transcript into fifteen minute segments. Put together a crew of transcriptionists, each with a paralegal to listen and comment real-time as the tape is played. In an hour, you put the finished segments together and have a finished transcript, with any interesting bits flagged by the paralegal, for a team of lawyers to read over.
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I expect it to be edited in favor of the police. Just like their reports.
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and… it already turns out that the prosecutor’s directions to the grand jury are not part of this release because they aren’t considered “evidence” - from what ive read it’s been entirely scraped out
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Good lord, that is outrageous if true. Jury instructions are paramount—that’s the reason lawyers fight about them so strenuously and appellate courts look at them so carefully.
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from npr:
The recording focuses on testimony and evidence that was presented to the jurors — but it does not document any of the guidance or statements that prosecutors gave to the grand jury. It is customary, Cameron said, not to record matters involving prosecutor recommendations and statements, or juror deliberations, “as they are not evidence.”
so looks like the da is indeed still playing games with this
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