Hands up

Page 8: Although there are several individuals who have stated that Brown held his hands up in an unambiguous sign of surrender prior to Wilson shooting him dead, their accounts do not support a prosecution of Wilson. As detailed throughout this report, some of those accounts are inaccurate because they are inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence; some of those accounts are materially inconsistent with that witness’s own prior statements with no explanation, credible [or] otherwise, as to why those accounts changed over time. Certain other witnesses who originally stated Brown had his hands up in surrender recanted their original accounts, admitting that they did not witness the shooting or parts of it, despite what they initially reported either to federal or local law enforcement or to the media. Prosecutors did not rely on those accounts when making a prosecutive decision.

While credible witnesses gave varying accounts of exactly what Brown was doing with his hands as he moved toward Wilson – i.e., balling them, holding them out, or pulling up his pants up – and varying accounts of how he was moving – i.e., “charging,” moving in “slow motion,” or “running” – they all establish that Brown was moving toward Wilson when Wilson shot him. Although some witnesses state that Brown held his hands up at shoulder level with his palms facing outward for a brief moment, these same witnesses describe Brown then dropping his hands and “charging” at Wilson.

Did anyone read the article?

The DOJ is basing their findings on the grand jury indictment proceedings. They are simply being lazy and not wishing to press the issue.

Prosecutor Admits He Let Witnesses Who “Absolutely Lied” Testify Before Ferguson Grand Jury

In an interview with a St. Louis radio station Friday, St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch admitted he let witnesses who “clearly were not telling the truth” testify before a grand jury that decided not to indict former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Wilson was facing possible charges for shooting and killing unarmed teenager Michael Brown in August. Last month, McCulloch announced the grand jury had reached ‘no true bill’ and Wilson would not be charged with any crime. Immediately following the decision’s announcement, violent protests shook Ferguson, and demonstrations took place nationwide in the subsequent days.

McCulloch Video

"Well, early on, I decided that anyone who claimed to have witnessed anything was going to be presented to the grand jury. And I knew that no matter how I handled it, there would be criticism of it. So if I didn’t put those witnesses on, then we’d be discussing now why I didn’t put those witnesses on. Even though their statements were not accurate. So my determination was to put everybody on and let the grand jurors assess their credibility, which they did. This grand jury poured their hearts and souls into this. It was a very emotional few months for them. It took a lot of them. I wanted to put everything on there. I thought it was much more important to present everything and everybody, and some that, yes, clearly were not telling the truth. No question about it."

Throughout the interview, McCulloch maintained that he not only did his job in presenting the evidence for a possible indictment, but went above and beyond by making sure the grand jury was given every possible piece of evidence and testimony to sift through. Which is, of course, the very problem in this instance. McCulloch essentially played defense attorney for Wilson and inundated the grand jury members with all sorts of testimony and evidence that could potentially sway any of them to see things one way or another. Hearsay, unreliable statements and witnesses who were completely lying were all placed before the jurors.

The whole world knows McCulloch did not want to indict a police officer and did his damnedest to allow Wilson to walk. The prosecutor made sure to concoct a scenario where Wilson was let off scot-free and he could claim he did what was necessary.