Grand juries.

Editor,

Grand juries are not supposed to be used to try cases.

Their purpose is to decide whether probable cause exists to warrant a trial. Their procedures only support this end and, because witnesses are not cross-examined by both a prosecution and defense, are not suitable for determining guilt or innocence.

In this case and in Ferguson, both of which lasted for months and are proudly hailed as "thorough" by the prosecutors who bungled them, grand juries were used as closed-door, one-sided substitutes for trials.

Killer cops are getting a free pass by misguided prosecutors who are using grand juries to protect killer cops from legitimate trials rather than to protect the public from killer cops and the pernicious racist assumptions that are breeding them.

Re: "No Indictment in Eric Garner Chokehold Case for N.Y.P.D. Officer" (12/4/2014)