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‘It smelled of onions and mustard,’ Border Patrol officer hit by sandwich in DC testifies (www.cnn.com)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world
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“He did it. He threw the sandwich.”

That’s how the defense counsel for Sean Dunn, the man who threw a sub-style sandwich at a Border Patrol officer in Washington, DC, this summer began the federal trial against him Tuesday morning.

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[–] 50 points 10 months ago (7 children)

I'm sure we all know the phrase that a prosecutor could get a grand jury to "indict a ham sandwich". It took prosecutors THREE Grand Juries to finally get an indictment for someone throwing that sandwich.

It's all a complete waste of time and taxpayer funds, and in any other point in history these prosecutors would have been fired immediately for incompetence at even considering an indictment in the first place, not even considering the possibility that they would try for three attempts.

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  • [–] 59 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    They never got the indictment. The prosecutor had to downgrade the charges from a felony to a misdemeanor, which doesn’t have to go before a grand jury.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    if a grand jury won't indict, doesn't double jeopardy apply? not a lawyer, just haven't dealt with this part of the process before

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    A grand jury is a sort of sanity check on a charge, and does not count towards the trial. It is basically "with these facts (provided only by the prosecution), is there enough probable cause to move a case to trial?". Double jeopardy in the 5th amendment has specific protections from going to trial multiple times or from getting multiple punishments for a crime.

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  • [–] 32 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Actually, it's even stupider than that I'm pretty sure, two grand juries refused to give them an indictment for a felony charge, so they brought a way less severe misdemeanor charge because you don't have to get a grand jury to sign off on those, and that's what we're wasting this time on

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