Letting the community agitators make the decisions. Update to this previous story.
Bucking a 40-year precedent, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Wednesday there will be no grand jury used in the Jamar Clark case, or any future police-involved shootings.
Freeman said in a press conference his decision was based in the idea “that grand juries may no longer serve the present evolving standards of justice, accountability and transparency.”
Black Lives Matter Minneapolis and other community groups had called for the county to not use a grand jury in the case of Clark, a 24-year-old black man who was shot and killed by Minneapolis police on Nov. 15.
Instead of 23 members of the public deciding on what charges — if any — officers Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze will face for the incident, that responsibility falls on Freeman, who plans to make that decision before the end of March.
“I respect this was a challenging decision for the county attorney to make,” Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau said. “The legal standards and thresholds remain the same, whether this case is looked at by a grand jury or reviewed by the county attorney.”
Freeman declined to take questions from the media during the press conference.
Black Lives Matter Minneapolis celebrated the announcement, using hashtags #Justice4Jamar and #NoGrandJury in a series of tweets.
“Be absolute clear: Mike Freeman didn’t do this. Black, Queer, Femme Youth and their allies did this… North Minneapolis and their allies did this… COMMUNITY did this, WE DID THIS!!”
State Rep. Raymond Dehn, a Democrat who represents north Minneapolis, called the decision to not use a grand jury “bold” and “an important step forward for justice in Minnesota.”
“Not using the grand jury system to determine charges in police shootings makes justice for Jamar, and others who are shot by police, possible,” he said in a statement.
Freeman said during his remarks that he had been working on developing a new grand jury system and was set to announce the changes last November, but cancelled the announcement after Clark was killed.