[From article]
He also blamed TV news media for helping to incite the protesters who looted businesses, started fires, and threw rocks in the wake of the announcement of the grand jury's decision Monday night.
"The grand jury came to the right decision because generally you don't indict someone unless you believe you can convict them at a jury trial," he said. "Any reasonable prosecutor would come to the conclusion that even if he were indicted, he would've been acquitted by a jury because there was reasonable doubt written all over this case."
[. . .]
"TV commentators, particularly on CNN, got it wrong," according to Dershowitz. "They were acting as if the probable cause required in a case like this is like the probable cause required to stop, search, or arrest somebody. That's just not the way it works.
"You need to have a conviction that's based on the evidence a jury would probably convict, and that kind of probable cause was lacking in this case. The media did a terrible job of whooping up a frenzy by misinforming the public about how indictments generally work," Dershowitz said.
"You have people on CNN saying, 'well, I'm a former prosecutor, I know I would have indicted in this case.' That's just nonsense. That's not the way indictments work."
Dershowitz predicted there would be no federal civil rights action filed. He said "the same criteria that applied in state court apply even more rigorously in criminal prosecutions by civil rights divisions."
http://www.newsmax.com/
Dershowitz Blasts Media for 'Whooping Up a Frenzy' in Ferguson
Tuesday, 25 Nov 2014 10:25 AM
By Melissa Clyne
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