{"id":3730,"date":"2020-11-01T15:33:29","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T15:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3730"},"modified":"2020-11-01T15:33:29","modified_gmt":"2020-11-01T15:33:29","slug":"the-breonna-taylor-case-proves-that-prosecutors-have-too-much-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3730","title":{"rendered":"The Breonna Taylor case proves that prosecutors have too much power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“After spending six months investigating the shooting in which Taylor was killed in her own home, he only recommended charges of wanton endangerment<\/a> to just one of the three officers who fired a total of 32 shots into her apartment on March 13. That single charge was the only one jurors were allowed to consider \u2014 whether former officer Brett Hankison endangered neighbors when he shot through Taylor\u2019s apartment, not whether any of the officers committed murder or even manslaughter in regards to Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cameron also didn\u2019t immediately admit that this was the only charge he presented to jurors. And after a judge ordered Cameron to release the grand jury recordings earlier this month, some argued<\/a> that he heavily relied on witnesses that supported the officers\u2019 version of events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Cameron\u2019s team presented testimony from a witness who said he heard the officers knock on Taylor\u2019s door that night, but did not present testimony from the dozenother witnesses who said police had not knocked, according to attorneys for Taylor\u2019s family. All of this has left advocates casting doubt on Cameron\u2019s process \u2014 and questioning the vast amount of latitude he\u2019s been afforded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the doubt isn\u2019t without reason \u2014 prosecutors are rarely ever checked or disciplined for their decisions. According to Kami Chavis, a professor of law at Wake Forest University and director of the school\u2019s criminal justice program, prosecutors have broad discretion, discretion that\u2019s rarely ever challenged. And grand jury proceedings, a body of peers tasked with determining whether to bring charges against an alleged perpetrator, are often done under secretive pretenses. While there\u2019s good reason for grand jury proceedings to be secret, Chavis says, cases like Taylor\u2019s, in which public distrust is high, demand transparency.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/21514887\/breonna-taylor-daniel-cameron-prosecutor<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“After spending six months investigating the shooting in which Taylor was killed in her own home, he only recommended charges of wanton endangerment to just one of the three officers who fired a total of 32 shots into her apartment on March 13. That single charge was the only one jurors were allowed to consider \u2014 whether former officer Brett Hankison endangered neighbors when he shot through Taylor\u2019s apartment, not whether any of the officers committed murder or even manslaughter in regards to Taylor.<\/p>\n

Cameron also didn\u2019t immediately admit that this was the only charge he presented to jurors. And after a judge ordered Cameron to release the grand jury recordings earlier this month, some argued that he heavily relied on witnesses that supported the officers\u2019 version of events.<\/p>\n

For example, Cameron\u2019s team presented testimony from a witness who said he heard the officers knock on Taylor\u2019s door that night, but did not present testimony from the dozen other witnesses who said police had not knocked, according to attorneys for Taylor\u2019s family. All of this has left advocates casting doubt on Cameron\u2019s process \u2014 and questioning the vast amount of latitude he\u2019s been afforded.<\/p>\n

And the doubt isn\u2019t without reason \u2014 prosecutors are rarely ever checked or disciplined for their decisions. According to Kami Chavis, a professor of law at Wake Forest University and director of the school\u2019s criminal justice program, prosecutors have broad discretion, discretion that\u2019s rarely ever challenged. And grand jury proceedings, a body of peers tasked with determining whether to bring charges against an alleged perpetrator, are often done under secretive pretenses. While there\u2019s good reason for grand jury proceedings to be secret, Chavis says, cases like Taylor\u2019s, in which public distrust is high, demand transparency.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1043,1044],"class_list":["post-3730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-breonna-taylor","tag-prosecutors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3731,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730\/revisions\/3731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}