Brian Gallini Profile picture
Sep 24, 2020 9 tweets 2 min read Read on X
1/ Let's talk about some of the problems with the grand jury's decision not to indict the officers responsible for killing #BreonnaTaylor [Thread] cnn.com/2020/09/23/us/…
2/ Let's start with some background (I promise it's relevant and short): first, as a general matter, a grand jury is asked to consider presented evidence and decide whether probable cause exists to believe that a crime has been committed by one or more individuals.
3/ second, the grand jury is an independent body - disconnected from any branch of government. It deliberates in secret and the prosecutor is the only attorney presenting evidence. There is no obligation to present exculpatory evidence and/or defenses.
4/ For these reasons, criminal defense attorneys are wary of grand jury proceedings. As New York Judge Sol Wachtler once famously said, “district attorneys now have so much influence on grand juries that ‘by and large’ they could get them to ‘indict a ham sandwich.’”
5/ Against this backdrop, perhaps you can already see some of the problems with today's decision. First, the state Attorney General (Daniel Cameron) said that the investigation showed the officers did announce themselves before entering. He should not have said that.
6/ To the contrary, that's a factual question that is not for him--or the grand jury--to decide. It would instead be appropriate for a jury to decide at trial. Second, he said the officers' use of force was justified; again, he should not have said that and, again, that's . . .
7/ a jury question. But the better point on this comment is that it contradicts basic self-defense law, which includes two doctrinal components relevant here: (1) the initial aggressor (officers) cannot claim self-defense; and (2) the homeowner (Kenneth Walker here) has ...
8/ no duty to retreat prior to using deadly force to combat a deadly threat. That makes Cameron's claim legally wrong--wholly apart from the impropriety of his assertion of the claim to begin with. It also suggests, by the way, that the prosecutor presented that defense ...
9/ to the grand jury, which you now know they were not obligated to do--and often *don't* do. I threw a lot at you but let me sum it up really simply: what happened today is wrong and this is not how a prosecutor typically empanels and relies on the grand jury system.

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More from @briangallini

May 26, 2022
1/ My heart breaks for the victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting. Like many, my heart hurts in different ways. 🧵
2/ My heart hurts as a parent who hugged his kids a little harder today, as a higher ed leader who believes it does not have to be this way, and as a crim law scholar who knows that the gunman’s use specifically of an AR-15 was preventable. Let me explain.
3/ In 1994, Congress passed the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act — known as the “assault weapons ban.” congress.gov/bill/103rd-con…
Read 14 tweets
Jul 4, 2021
1/ Circling back on the #Cosby opinion to focus on one problem: the remedy. So, why not suppress his deposition testimony & remand for retrial? Seems reasonable, and the concurring & dissenting opinion (CDO) pointed it out, but according to the majority...
2/ "Our disagreement with the CDO arises concerning its view that mere suppression of Cosby’s deposition testimony will remedy his constitutional harm and 'fully' restore him to where he stood before he detrimentally relied upon D.A. Castor’s inducement." pacourts.us/assets/opinion…
3/ "This perspective understates the gravity of Cosby’s harm in this case, and suppression alone is insufficient to provide a full remedy of the consequences of the due process violation."
Read 8 tweets
Mar 31, 2021
1/ I have so enjoyed watching the impressive anti-racism efforts of law schools—including my own. #LegalEd has a long way to go, but we’re doing the work. As we do, though, I can’t help but feel tension between this work and the US News rankings. THREAD
aals.org/antiracist-cle…
2/ For those outside the loop, the US News rankings incentivize law school admission practices that alienate students from historically underrepresented backgrounds—e.g., those identifying as American Indian, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian.
lssse.indiana.edu/wp-content/upl…
3/ Let me explain via an illustrative example from my friend, @TheEdLawProf (whose work I recommend). In his piece, “The Marginalization of Black Aspiring Lawyers,” @FIULAWREVIEW, Taylor writes:
Read 14 tweets
Sep 22, 2020
1/ [Short thread] A few comments as await a decision from the grand jury about whether the officers who shot and killed #BreonnaTalyor will be criminally charged. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/l…
2/ To begin with, it's the right call to rely on the grand jury here - it provides independence to a charging decision that would ...otherwise fall within the province of the prosecutor's discretion. Now, please know that grand jury proceedings are secret so we will not learn...
3/ either what the prosecution presented or the rationale for the grand jury's decision. Also, jeopardy does not attach at the grand jury phase, which means that a grand jury that chooses not to indict has no constitutional impact from a charging perspective.
Read 5 tweets
Sep 9, 2020
1/ A former (& talented) student of mine @UARKLaw—Marion Humphrey—was subjected to race-based policing by the AR. St. Police. As a dean & scholar who is deeply committed to issues of crim. law & procedure, I can’t sit by w/o comment. So, let’s talk. THREAD
arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/…
2/ The stop: The officer alleged he stopped Marion for “changing lanes too quickly.” Maybe he did, but the dashcam footage I’ve seen doesn’t support that claim. My take: The officer stopped Marion because he’s a young black male who was driving a rented U-Haul on the interstate.
3/ The stop (cont.): Yes, pretextual stops are constitutional so long as police have a valid basis for the stop (Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (1996) needs revisiting), but that hardly means pretextual stops are normatively appropriate.
Read 12 tweets
Jul 12, 2020
I have participated for months in the Oregon and broader #DiplomaPrivilege conversations. For those advocating for diploma privilege, I thought you might appreciate the views of one dean. With thanks to @sjdprods & @profdaf who helped guide my thinking, let me offer a thread.
As a law school, we were confident that our graduates could pass the bar exam--under pre-pandemic circumstances. But, to state the obvious, the conditions for the upcoming exam will be, at best, uncertain.
To be sure, the Oregon Bar did its best to provide a socially distant exam, as I'm sure all bar examiners will, but neither we nor any Bar can be confident about how the public health guidance will shift between now and later this month.
Read 7 tweets

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