FERGUSON

[Heywood]

If a republican was president the left would be crying out about how slow the response from the federal government is.

If every criminal was prosecuted this way, few would ever be charged much less convicted.

Consider:

• During an indictment, the prosecution alone makes it's case. The only standard of proof to make an indictment is if there's any case at all to be considered.
  
• The so-called prosecuting attorney sounded like the defense attorney.
  
• There was a conflict of interest, considering the prosecutor is local and so close to the case. It would have been better to have a federal prosecutor who was less personally biased.
  

Negative DP,

The purpose of the grand jury is to establish if there is probable cause to bring a prosecution and not if there's any case at all to be considered as you suggest. Probable cause is a reasonable amount of suspicion, supported by circumstances sufficiently strong to justify a prudent and cautious person's belief that certain facts are probably true.

A lot of investigation went into this case. Are you suggesting the prosecutor only present evidence to the grand jury which supports prosecution? It seems to me the prosecutors job here is to lay out all the evidence and then argue that it is probably true a crime was committed. At times the prosecutor might sound like a defense attorney especially when he presents evidence which would support a defense if the Grand Jury brings an indictment. If the Grand Jury doesn't buy the prosecutors argument that the totality of evidence suggests a crime was committed....after seeing all the evidence the prosecutor has available to him....then it simply doesn't buy the prosecutors argument. The point of the Grad Jury is to insure that prosecutions are based on probable cause and not reasons which are arbitrary and capricious.

Regarding your last comment that there was a conflict of interest because the prosecutor was local....well that's pretty much always the case. If officer Roscoe issues you a traffic ticket in Hazard County, the prosecutor is going to be from Hazard County. They aren't going to bring in a federal prosecutor just because there is a "conflict of interest".