The prosecutor usually chooses the evidence that a grand jury will hear, but in this case, the grand jury was given more latitude in calling witnesses and issuing subpoenas, according to Susan McGraugh, a law professor at the St. Louis University who has followed the case extensively. Grand jurors viewed photographs, forensic evidence and medical reports. Witnesses who testified include people who saw the events and police officers who worked on the investigation. While it is unusual in grand jury proceedings for the defendant to appear, Officer Wilson also gave testimony.
The grand jury that decided not to indict Police Officer Darren Wilson operated differently from a typical grand jury in Missouri.
Two, in addition to the St. Louis County grand jury investigation. The F.B.I. opened a civil rights inquiry into the shooting on Aug. 11. The Justice Department later began its own civil rights investigation to examine whether the police in Ferguson have a history of discrimination or misuse of force.
The protests against the police have pitted the predominantly black community against a nearly all-white police force. Of the 53 commissioned officers in the Ferguson Police Department, four are black.
While most of St. Louis County is white, Ferguson and neighboring towns are predominantly black. Blacks were once a minority in Ferguson, but the city’s demography has shifted in the last decade after white families moved out to surrounding suburbs. Ferguson, a town of 21,000, is a “relatively stable, working and middle-income community,” said Richard Rosenfeld, a crime trends expert and professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “But it does have its pockets of disadvantage."
Not when compared with neighboring towns. The violent crime rate is far lower in Ferguson than in Jennings, and it is comparable to two other adjacent towns of similar size.