Jacob Sullum Explains Why Michael Brown's Killer Would Have Been Acquitted
On Monday a grand jury rejected criminal charges against Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer. Given the contested circumstances of Brown's death, says Jacob Sullum, it is understandable that many people were dismayed by the grand jury's decision. But if Wilson had been indicted, Sullum argues, he almost certainly would have been acquitted, precisely because important details of his deadly encounter with Brown are hard to pin down.
