(Calif.) Gov. Brown OKs nation's 1st ban on grand juries in police shootings

[Newsjock]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Tuesday making California the first state in the nation to ban the use of grand juries to decide whether police officers should face criminal charges when they kill people in the line of duty.

The ban, which will go into effect Jan. 1, comes after grand juriess in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York, made controversial decisions in secret hearings last year not to bring charges against officers who killed unarmed black men, sparking protests across the country. Calls for transparency also have come amid national concerns about disparate treatment of blacks and other racial minorities when encounters with cops turned deadly in Baltimore, Cincinnati and South Carolina.

"What the governor's decision says is, he gets it -- the people don't want secrecy when it comes to officer-involved shootings," said retired judge and former San Jose independent police auditor LaDoris Cordell, the first African-American appointed as a judge in Northern California and a key supporter of the bill. "We're not trying to get more officers indicted. We're saying, 'whatever you decide, do it in the open.''

... But the California District Attorneys Association and the California Police Chiefs Association opposed the ban, saying the grand jury should be preserved as an option.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_28621966/gov-brown-oks-nations-1st-ban-grand-juries

[SoapBox]

1. I love Jerry!

Best Governor we've had in a million years.

[elias49]

3. And he's a GD liberal!

I thought all liberals were like lepers or something!

[moonscape]

15. Just wish he were younger so he could run for Pres again ... n/t

[Rod Beauvex]

17. He's still breathing.

Remember being old didn't stop senile St. Ronnie.

[moonscape]

18. No, but it's the reason Jerry gave for not going for it. n/t

[valerief]

2. Bravo. nt

[99th_Monkey]

4. That is so important, and so timely. Bless you Jerry.

Bring this all out into the light of day, so there's much more accountability
and fairness to the 'criminal justice' process, such that when cops gun down
unarmed citizens, the decision to indict/not-indict is an open book for all
to see.

I hope this helps cops not be so damned trigger-happy.

[passiveporcupine]

5. This is rightous!

[bbgrunt]

6. most excellent!!

[GGJohn]

7. Excellent!!!!!

Hopefully this will catch on nationwide.

[BillZBubb]

8. Excellent. This should be the model for the nation.

[dogknob]

9. Next step: settlements come from police union coffers, not taxpayers. n/t

[Vincardog]

11. Take the settlement money from the police Department not the union.

[Recursion]

12. But that's "from the taxpayers"

It's not like the department will spend less money next year; they'll spend the same and pay the fine from a new bond issue the town quickly passes.

[Vincardog]

13. That is what happens now when the city pays. Take it out of the PD and make the city show how much

Racists Pigs cost the citizens on paper in the budget.

[Recursion]

14. Right, you're saying we should continue how it's being done now

The poster above was saying it's been shown time & time again that taking money from the PD doesn't actually change behavior; the town just raises more revenue.

[msongs]

10. criminal police want a one sided trial in secret. sorry, not in california anymore nt

[The Second Stone]

16. Wow, the first black judge in Northern California

Must come as a surprise to Ret. Judge John Dearman (San Francisco Superior Court) and Ret. Judge Thelton Henderson (USDC Northern District of California), both of whom were appointed to the bench a decade before Cordell.