BY REQUEST Story by Jim Redwine

Gavel Gamut

By Jim Redwine

BY REQUEST

I was surprised when a friend of mine called me today and requested I not write Chapter 12 of Unanimous for Murder but, instead, address the situation in Ferguson, Missouri. At first I felt pride that someone had one (1) read my column and two (2) sought my opinion.

Then a grey penumbra settled over my mind as I puzzled upon the possibility that my friend sought not my opinion on Ferguson, but respite from another installment of my novel. When I raised this spectre with my friend, he assured me my fears were generally unfounded.

Reassured, I am once again swelled with self-importance and now charge into this morass both undaunted and unbriefed. As a latter day Admiral David Farragut I say, “Do not confuse me with the facts; full speed ahead.”

August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri Michael Brown was shot to death by Darren Wilson. Brown was six foot six and weighed about 300 pounds. Wilson is six foot four and weighs about 220 pounds. Brown was eighteen. Wilson is twenty-eight.

The incident occurred in the middle of a public street in daylight. There were numerous eyewitnesses including Brown’s friend Dorian Johnson. It has been alleged that Brown and Johnson had just stolen a box of cigarillos from a nearby convenience store. One version of the story is that Wilson, a white police officer patrolling the area in his “commission” had received a radio dispatch describing the “perpetrators” or “subjects” as two young African American males, one of whom was quite large.

Another version of the story is Wilson politely asked or rudely ordered Brown and Johnson to get out of the middle of the street and Brown responded with a homoneurotic charge that Wilson was a “pansy” who was afraid to shoot Brown.

Of course, we do not know Brown’s story, but Wilson’s contains a self-defense claim that Brown attacked him causing Wilson to fear for his life. Brown was unarmed and wearing shorts. Wilson had visible marks to his face. Wilson shot twelve times; six hit Brown. The last shot was the fatal injury.

Wilson’s story is that Brown was charging toward him. Johnson’s story is that Brown was retreating with his hands up.

All of my information is hearsay, some “totem pole” or multiple level hearsay.

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch asked a judge to have the matter presented to a Grand Jury. The judge decided to use an existing Grand Jury that had been in session deliberating on numerous cases for almost four months. There were twelve members of this Missouri Grand Jury. Indiana uses six members.

McCulloch presented sixty witnesses including Wilson who voluntarily waived his Fifth Amendment right and testified. Supposedly every witness who claimed any knowledge about the case was called.

I have no knowledge of the testimony before the Grand Jury, but McCulloch asked and the judge agreed to make the complete transcript public. I could read it but have not and do not plan to. Neither I nor apparently millions of others need to do so to form an opinion. The same was true in the trial of O.J. Simpson.