There is an interesting development in the case of North Augusta (S.C.) officer Justin Craven in the alleged murder of 68-year-old Ernest Satterwhite. Despite public disclosure laws, the police are refusing to release the videotape because they describe it as shocking and disturbing. Some would argue that that is precisely why it should be available to the public.
Craven tried to pull over Satterwhite for suspected DUI and followed him home after Satterwhite refused to pull over. However, the dashboard camera reportedly captured Craven running up to Satterwhite’s car on his driveway and fired several shots through the closed door. While he said that Satterwhite tried to grab his gun, prosecutors concluded otherwise and charged him. However, he was not charged with murder. The grand jury did not return a voluntary manslaughter charges (which would have come with a potential 30 year sentence). He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of misconduct in office and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle.
SLED Chief Mark Keel said that releasing the video would hamper the officer’s right to a fair trial. Accordingly, freedom of information requests were denied. Yet, agencies are supposed to give specific reasons for withholding videotape like undermining efforts to arrest a suspect. One of those reasons is generally not embarrassing or public reaction.
At the same time, the city reached a $1.2 million settlement with the family but required them to sign an agreement not to disclose it to anyone else.
For his part, Solicitor Donnie Myers says that he will not release the film until after it is used in court because “the premature release of the video to be used at trial … would be harmful, unfairly prejudice the pre-trial opinions of potential jurors, prejudicial to the defendant and not in the interest of justice.”
This could make for an interesting challenge by the media. Any court or prosecutor could refuse virtually any videotape out of concern for its influence on a trial. How would such an exception be measured? In the meantime, as a matter of great public importance, the community would be denied the clearest evidence of the alleged misconduct of its police department.
What do you think?
Source: Big Story
It is still curious to me that a criminal defense attorney like JT does not know evidence in a criminal proceeding is routinely not released to the public. Is he so myopic that he doesn’t know this? Yes, JT and criminal defense attorneys get all records via discovery. And YES, some LEAK those confidential records to the press during proceedings. And YES, prosecutors do that as well. But, this is BASIC knowledge. Maybe JT couldn’t find any good red meat for the haters today so he went w/ some fatty, precooked piece of gristle.
It’s been fun. But a man has to hoe his own row. Remember, when something bad happens, call a crackhead.
There can be a million posts consoling the families of unlucky criminals like Michael Brown and Freddie Grey but the progressives and Professor Turley can not find it in their hearts to express any compassion for the death of a police officer. There will not be a post and nary a comment about the murder of police officers that portray that as a bad thing. I think it is because they don’t think that it is. That they think the cops had it coming.
Their agenda is to delegitimize the police and their function in our society. The current drive by the New York City Council to decriminalize many offenses and end community policing is an direct attempt at letting the criminal element prevail. The Mayor of Baltimore showed their hand when she pulled the police back and let the criminals “vent.”
This is what you get when you let the insane take over the asylum.
I said 2 days ago this prosecutor is just like the Trayvon idiot prosecutor. But, the Trayvon idiot just overcharged. This one doubled down. She overcharged and used a sawed off shotgun approach, spraying all cops w/ pellets.
Baltimore prosecutor’s arrest documents drawn up for wrong people. No rush, just hurry. No need for accuracy, either. Hang ’em, then see to it they have a fair trial. Top quality legal work.
Article. here.
Concern about “live police officers” that may have committed crimes, being held to the same laws we all are, should be on everyone’s agenda. Unless you think they are above the law.
When Rev. Al Sharpton is one of the most frequent guests @ the WH, and he is given free hand to spread his racial pimp theology, this is what happens. Obama does not identify w/ poor black people. His anger about the rioting is real. His calling looters “thugs” is real. He is embarrassed by them. He identifies w/ white/black elitists. He is planning on retiring to Palm Springs for chrissake where he can golf every day. There is no doubt racial tensions have gotten much worse under Obama. Black people are fairing much worse under his tenure, and putting in place a racial pimp as your front man creates the chaos, in Democrat controlled cities. It’s gonna be a long, hot summer.
Quit using this dead police officer for your personal agenda, that’s pretty despicable
Then quit using live police officers for your personal agenda, that’s pretty despicable.
Of course they should release the video. They should also release the officer’s address and that of his entire family.
How else can we try him in the media if we don’t get to speculate before the trial. We must whip up the proles into a feeding frenzy and advance the goal of Federalizing the police and turning the country into a socialist police state. Come on…..throw him to the mob. Red meat. They are demanding red meat. So what if we skip all that tedious justice thingy and stuff like a fair trial with an impartial jury.
In fact…..we need to make the jury’s addresses, photos and daily schedules available so that we can be sure that they will also be adequately persuaded to come up with the “right” verdict.
Hmmmmm? After all. It is getting the verdict “right” and not really about having a trial or a justice system.
Condolences for Officer Brian Moore’s death should be given to the family of the deceased, not strangers on the internet, trying to guilt trip people into not asking questions about police abuse and overreach which is a nation wide problem of great magnitude. When we allow our police forces to to act in a manner above the law, we are yet further down the road to a police state. Haven’t we gone far enough down that road already? Quit using this dead police officer for your personal agenda, that’s pretty despicable.
Inga – there is no proof that police abuse is a great problem. Like anything else it is a problem, but if you nibble at it every day it seems bigger than it is. Trying to stop any talking about the killing about the death of a police officer is just wrong, even for a liberal like you.
Paul, Why would I want them to stop speaking? You misunderstand….again.
Inga – you can back and hoe all you want, but we all know what you are thinking.
“I think that the thugs in our country are out of control, and unmoored from civil society.”
Absolutely.
There’s plenty of attention on cop behavior, but very little on ghetto-thug behavior.
In fact, we’re supposed to pretend it’s not happening at all, that even thinking about it is racist or (depending on the perp) Islamophobic (e.g., the word ‘thug’ is a ‘dog whistle’).
While I am afraid of police over-reach, I am more afraid of the barbarians they have to deal with, who live on my street.
My older sister lives in a lily-white part of Nebraska, and she was just telling me how the cops are as bad as the perps.
And yet, she and her friends would never ever ever venture into certain parts of town because they know they will be assaulted or killed fior being white.
It appears the button you push to get that result is “Post Comment.” It seems to work most every time.
Unless you’re willing to engage in actual discussion instead of typing childish insults, I’m done with you for now. Have a nice day.
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2209096!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_635/demetrius-blackwell-pool-photos.jpg
Who is Demetrius Blackwell?
On July 2, 2000 he robbed Andre Willingham of his wallet at gunpoint. When the victim started to follow him in his car he shot up the car and was arrested and convicted of armed robbery and attempted murder. He spent a mere eight years incarcerated and was back on the street.
In May 2013, Blackwell tried to rip the badge off a cop and injured an officer while being arrested.
In November 2014, he allegedly threw bricks at the windows of a house and a parked car while waving a gun.
He was involved in numerous encounters that didn’t end with his arrest, including getting shot in the hand and stabbed in the groin.
But that is not who he really is.
He is the skell that murdered Officer Brian Moore.
He is the guy they are talking about when they say too many young black men are incarcerated. He is the guy that they say should not be stopped and frisked. He is the guy who is the victim of racial profiling when the police stop him because he is adjusting a weapon in his pants. He is the guy they want to drink with an open container, smoke weed and urinate in the street.
He is Freddie Grey with a gun instead of a knife. He is Michael Brown who got the gun away from the cop. He is Trayvon Martin who picked on someone who didn’t have a gun to defend himself.
He is the guy who will get fancy lawyers like Professor Turley to defend him and his commenters to post comments and theories that will support him and help him beat the rap. He is the guy that the President and the Attorney General and New York Times will lionize and tell us that we have to understand the circumstances that forced him to pull that trigger. He is the progressive poster child that they strive to protect and cosset as they do everything in their power to delegitimize the police and what they do to protect the ordinary law abiding citizen.
Officer Brian Moore?
Not even an afterthought. No one on this blog can seem to muster up a word of solace to his devastated family. Not one post expressing even the bare regret that he was murdered in cold blood. The new Attorney General is rushing as one of her first acts to comfort the family of Freddie Grey. The family of Officer Brian Moore will not even get the back of her hand.
Officer Brian Moore will soon be laying in the cold cruel ground.
With this post at this time you spit on his grave.
I’ve found I sometimes just need to push the right buttons and then let a person spew their ignorance on topics of which they know nothing. That’s part of the tradecraft. Please, keep talking, four plus one. Your incredulity shows your insularity. And, your hatin’ on cops is well established in the archives.
A little testy today Nick?
First you call me a lawyer, then a fry cook, now a 7-11? Did I move to California? Did I just become over twenty years younger? (WooHoo!)
Of course, you could address why law enforcement has no problem releasing information beneficial to itself and only uses this excuse when convenient.
But I suppose a naked claim of increasingly ludicrous personal authority is enough for some when they have nothing else.
By the way, could you explain why attorneys would pay a supposed private investigator for FOI requests when the form is already on their secretary’s computer?
It seems rather wasteful and, um, well… incredible.
The person whose alias follows four should be standing on his head, because as usual, he is talking out of his ass. Evidence is routinely withheld when part of a criminal proceeding. I guess 7-11 clerks don’t understand that.
No one ever lies about a shooting.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3HDQTnMoKo&w=560&h=315%5D
Source for above.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/08/south-carolina-cop-now-faces-felony-charge-for-fatally-shooting-a-black-man-in-his-driveway/
“Haters gotta hate.” Brian Moore must have deserved to die for all cops sins.
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
Whether JT has the self awareness or not, his personal issues w/ cops is activating the haters here. It is edifying.
I think that our nation needs to have a massive demonstration until these thugs start getting the death penalty when they murder cops. When are all the deceased cops going to have their day in court?
I think that the thugs in our country are out of control, and unmoored from civil society.