Reply #299: The job has awesome power, and responsibility

[jberryhill]

"the same beatdown that loser in Colorado got"

No need to characterize the prosecutor that way.

On the one hand, a DA has the awesome power of the state to deprive you of life, liberty, and property, and must wield it responsibly. On the other hand, the DA has a duty to zealously represent the public interest.

As this DA has correctly stated, a conviction can be obtained on the mere basis of a jury believing the testimony of a victim. That is all one needs to proceed with a case, theoretically.

Well, that AND a reasonably identified defendant.

This investigation is incomplete. What's being discussed here are second-hand accounts of one piece of that investigation. Given that the DA himself raised expectations of the DNA testing, one wonders what else he might have, but the facts of any situation never line up as neatly as one might think they do.

What is unfortunate is that apparently some people have been hounded out of their home by protestors when there do seem to be real and legitimate questions about what happened. To the extent I care about one of these "baby down a well" news pieces that should be of local interest at best, I would like to know what happened without a lot of wishful thinking one way or the other, but this looks like one of those things that will be picked at for years without any satisfying conclusion being reached.

Surely it can be discussed by rational adults without insults or hyperbole.