OH: Armed Citizen Found not Guilty. Were Charges Political?

This appears to be another politically motivated trial.  The armed citizen was originally found to have been acting in self defense by the police who investigated the situation.  He was confronted by two men, one with a knife, aged 25 and 26.  There was another witness in their car.  The shooter was 43 and had a valid concealed carry permit.   The family of the attacker who was shot protested, and a prosecutor convinced a grand jury to indict the shooter, two months after the event.  From wlwt.com:

CINCINNATI —A man accused of shooting another driver in a road rage incident last year has been found not guilty on all charges.

(snip)

 The judge said that Furr acted in self defense because Grissom was carrying a knife.

I have not found much detail about this case.  The news reports from Cincinnati are only giving the attacker's side of the story, referring to him as the "victim".  Clearly, the judge and the police did not agree.  It is not unusual for the real victim in these cases to be effectively gagged by the fact that they are facing charges, and their attorney has told them not to talk about the case.

I suspect that the situation was very clear cut, but as we have seen with Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, an attempt to learn the facts is handicapped by the way the system works.   "Victims" can make incendiary charges, without any worry about repercussions.  The accused can have anything he says used against him, so they must be very cautious.

What is clear is that we do not have a detailed account of what happened when the "victim" was shot.  The accusation simply seems to be "He was shot, therefore he is the victim."   It is not clear if a jury was involved or not.  It is a little unusual for a judge to make a statement such as the one above, so it may have been a trial without a jury.   A person who is accused can waive their right to a jury trial, and many do, when they believe the facts are overwhelmingly in their favor.

It would be nice to read the police reports written immediately after the event.  They likely include statements from all of those involved.

 ©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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