This was the pawn shop owner whose store was broken into by looters in Minneapolis and Mr. Rieple was inside, used force to defend himself and ended up charged with murder.
No charges will be filed against a pawn shop owner in the May fatal shooting of Calvin Horton Jr. because looters destroyed all the video, only one witness cooperated, numerous other witnesses refused to come forward, and a second identified witness to the shooting refused to be interviewed, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Monday.
After an exhaustive six-month investigation by the Minneapolis Police Department, with guidance from county prosecutors, there was insufficient evidence to overcome a self-defense argument in court by the shooter, John Rieple.
No charges in Horton shooting due to lack of evidence
If you read the whole thing, I believe you can notice a certain tone of “Shit, we could not stick it to the guy and he is gonna get away with it!” Now I come to expect that from the Media, but this is the press release of the Hennepin County Attorney and not a Social Justice intern working for the local rag.
Based upon the facts and available evidence, the state could not prove it was not self-defense and prosecutors are ethically prohibited from filing charges against someone knowing it would not be possible to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
That sounds a lot as “Well, we are bounded by stupid rules and we have to let the fucker go.” which makes you all warm and fuzzy inside, right? And then the warning that he will never be out of the woods and he will be carrying a Damocles’ sword above him for as long as they want.
If additional evidence becomes available, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office could reconsider the decision not to bring a charge.
I do believe that this will be the future focus on Gun Control: Not the weapon’s ownership but the usage in Self Defense will be criminalized.
From the American Bar Association:
Get ready, it is gonna be a bumpy ride.
…prosecutors are ethically prohibited from filing charges against someone knowing it would not be possible to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. …
Since when have prosecutors concerned themselves with ethics in high profile cases? His case must really suck for him to drop the charges now. I suspect that even the one witness they found contradicts the narrative.
“prosecutors are ethically prohibited from filing charges against someone knowing it would not be possible to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”
What a blatant lie. First time I’ve ever seen something so incredible printed. They constantly file charges that wont stick to for all kinds of things, bargaining ships, to put the screws to you, to get you scooped up and put into jail etc.
They will be all for screwing the huy who defends himself until it happens to them. This so called Country is going to hell quick. Sad.
The looters were on the correct side of the political aisle, therefore any resistance to their actions is simply white supremacist violence committed solely because of the skin color of the looters.
“The primary duty of a prosecutor is to seek justice within the bounds of the law, not merely to convict.” Priceless.
As I tell clients all the time, we have a legal system, not a justice system. Define “justice.” 20 people, 20 different answers. Law is usually reasonably definable. Justice? Not so much.
As to not “ethically” charging if they do not believe they can prove the matter beyond a reasonable doubt, well, that’s bunk too, particularly in this kind of high profile instance. Charges are filed for political/public relations reasons, sometimes in the hope that they can be quietly pled down to something much less once the media glare has worn off. Sometimes they are simply plea bait, designed to leverage a plea to a lesser charge.
And please don’t tell me we should eliminate plea bargaining. Can’t be done. We rely on ethical public officials. Yea, I know. Relying on that is a fool’s errand. Yes, sometimes. As someone in the system, I’ll tell you it works reasonably well, most of the time, if the media doesn’t distort the system too much.
Now the civil lawsuits will be filed against the business owner for wrongful death.