Benjamin Crump — the lawyer for slain Ferguson, Missouri, teenager Michael Brown’s family — joined with Brown’s distraught relatives in denouncing a grand jury’s decision to not indict Officer Darren Wilson in the death of the young black man last summer.
During a press conference Tuesday, the morning after the grand jury verdict set off a fresh explosion of violence in Ferguson, Crump had harsh words for the justice system, according to USA Today .
“We saw how completely unfair this process was. We object as publicly and loudly as we can on behalf of Michael Brown Jr.’s family that this process is broken. The process should be indicted.”
According to a TV Guide report, Crump and the Brown family have raised strong objections regarding the involvement of St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch in the trial. They apparently urged for another prosecutor to be assigned to the case, preferably one with no connection to the Ferguson police.
Benjamin Crump asked the public to “make a difference” instead of just causing an uproar. Crump also suggested that there should be a “Michael Brown Law” mandating that police wear cameras, in order to minimize future occurrences of law enforcement abusing their power.
“We won’t have to play this game of witness memories and secret grand jury proceedings. It’ll just be transparent.”
Michael Brown’s family also appealed to the public to not cause trouble in the wake of the decision.
“While we understand that many others share our pain, we ask that you channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen.”
As for Robert McCulloch, he has defended the verdict and the jury of nine whites and three blacks, stating that “they are the only people that have heard and examined every witness and every piece of evidence.”
Benjamin Crump was not the only public figure to speak out against the verdict in the case against Darren Wilson. As reported by the Inquisitr , civil rights activist and MSNBC pundit Al Sharpton declared that the jury’s decision to not indict Wilson was a miscarriage of justice. Sharpton questioned whether or not McCulloch was biased in favor of Wilson.
“I’ve never seen a prosecutor hold a press conference to discredit the victim. Where he went out of his way to go point-by-point in discrediting Michael Brown Jr., who could not defend himself.”
Do you agree with Benjamin Crump’s belief that the legal process is broken? What do you think about the accusations that prosecutor Robert McCulloch was biased toward Darren Wilson?
[Image via zimbio.com ]