Federal civil rights charges unlikely against police officer in Ferguson shooting

[branford]

152. Not all attorneys are created equal.

The wealthy have the ability to hire better attorneys and invest more in experts and investigators.

This is no great secret. When the wealthy have better outcomes, it's not backroom deals, political connections or even racism, the vast, vast majority of the time. In any criminal trial, although the prosecution has to meet a high standard, they are generally well funded, and poorly financed and overworked defense counsel, often appointed by the state for poor minority defendants, simply lack the resources or sometimes legal acumen and experience to prevail.

Few jurors are racists, but they will generally respond to talented, experienced, and high price attorneys and the impressive experts that wealth can hire. The best example is probably the OJ Simpson trial.

If you want to improve outcomes for poor minority defendants, simply providing better funding to the local public defender might have a much greater effect that all the anti-racism marches and protests, no less riots, in Ferguson or anywhere else.

I would also note that African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and other minorities, including women, are very well-represented on many police forces and in district attorneys offices, particularly in most major cities. Sadly, not only are young black men disproportionately criminal defendants, their victims are also minorities in their own communities, they are arrested by minority police officers and prosecuted by minority assistant district attorneys.