A key tactic used by criminal defense lawyers when they have a client that is clearly as guilty as hell is to delay, delay, delay … to put as much time between the crime and any potential punishment as possible. They know that public outrage and sentiment dims over time, and, who knows, sometimes a legal miracle might happen.
Take the sad and disturbing case of now-disgraced Common Pleas Judge Lance Mason, who once was a shining example of the best and the brightest of the local black legal community. In what can only be described as a total mental breakdown he allegedly attacked his wife in a manner so vicious and brutal that it defies all logic and reason.
His attorney(s) have …wisely, I might add … used every stall tactic in the legal book to delay his trial — if, indeed there is to be one — knowing that the only thing that’s going to beat him to the penitentiary will be the headlights on the bus carrying him there. His demise, and the damage done to his wife and family, leaves us all diminished.
Which brings me to the case of Tim Loehmann, the cop accused of gunning down 12-year-old Tamir Rice in a split second in a Westside playground on Nov. 22 of 2014 when the child allegedly put his hand on a toy gun in his waistband. The video of the incident has drawn tons of negative national attention to Cleveland as the killings of unarmed black men and boys seemingly continues unabated in America.
Granted, in the interest of justice, all incidents such as the aforementioned deserve and demand a thorough and thoughtful investigation by a qualified and unbiased police agency … but, unless I’m missing something here, this case is beginning to drag on forever and a day. What, pray tell, are the unknowns?
The video of the killing has, at this point, been analyzed by perhaps every expert utilizing every forensic technology known to man; ballistics experts have confirmed what the video clearly shows: The bullets that killed Tamir came from the gun of Officer Loehmann; proper police policies and procedures clearly were not followed; and the treatment of the dead child’s sister as she attempted to rush to his side as he lay dying was truly reprehensible.
Perhaps an update on the investigation from the Sheriff’s Department might calm the queasiness I’m beginning to feel in the pit of my stomach; some word, some tidbit that the investigation is proceeding, or even stalled for some unimaginable reason. Something to calm my fears that law enforcement wagons are not being circled to protect Loehmann … that time is being allowed to past so that if the investigators report to the county prosecutor states that no charges should be filed in the killing the public outrage will have already been tamped down because the incident occurred so long ago.
There’s a saying in law enforcement circles that “the wheels of justice grind very slowly, but exceedingly fine.” However, as its demonstrated time and again in this country, that maxim seemingly only applies to defendants that are not members of law enforcement. All too often, when the person(s) being investigated for a crime has a license to kill bestowed on them by government, stalling is only a prelude to a coming perversion of justice. I sincerely hope that my growing sense of unease is off the mark in the case at hand.
[Photo: Emmanuel Huybrechts]
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.