In all of the melee resulting from the shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson, the media has overlooked a number of other very important shootings of unarmed civilians by police officers. One of the most egregious offenses is that of Officer Joseph Weekley’s fatal shooting of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones.
Officer Weekley recently saw manslaughter charge dropped against him, for shooting the 7-year-old while she slept.
The Detroit police officer had been on trial for involuntary manslaughter who was shot and killed during a 2010 police raid.
But early in October, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway granted a motion which Weekley’s attorney had filed, arguing for the dismissal of the felony charge he faced in the young girl’s death.
The trial was brought to an end while the Michigan Court of Appeals reviewed an emergency appeal of the ruling.
Presiding Judge Michael Talbot issued the order to deny the appeal and allow the judge’s dismal to stand.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
3 comments:
And, the rest of you cops wonder why it is that more and more Americans despise you., hate you and rally in support of yet another criminal against you.
This is why.., you arrogant POS., right here, pal.
When a lying cop that didn't follow his training murders a sleeping child., and gets away with it there's a big, big problem within LE, our court system and your 'internal investigations'. A huge problem.
The DOJ has just indicted Wilson on federal charges. I don't think he's guilty of anything 'in-this-case'.
However, this should happen EVERY time a cop murders an unarmed American citizen, no matter what the local 'in house' investigation says, and I hope that the DOJ continues and expands the practice. In fact, I've told them so recently.
Very simply put, if that were my child I would kill the human that did. The fact that they did it under color of law would make me want to kill more than one of his human buddies as well. You wonder how homegrown terrorist are made? Wonder no longer. 11
The little girl's death was a tragedy.
The linked article left a lot of information out which might have helped readers better understand just what occurred in court.
But from what was presented:
The officer was actually charged and was on trial. The prosecution appears to have been aggressive in its presentation. So far, so good.
It is unclear what convinced the trial judge to vacate the charge.
The prosecution appealed the trial court's order. The next higher level court found errors in the trial court's reasoning and dismissal order, but did not set the order aside.
Perhaps a lawyer could shed some light on the trial court's motivation and process, and on the appellate court's reasoning.
Perhaps a retrial is possible? Or not?
It certainly appears the officer used poor judgement and didn't follow trained procedures.
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