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Logic Behind Ferguson Grand Jury's Decision Not To Indict Police Officer May Remain Mystery

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCullough announced the grand jury's decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, but how the secret, 12-member panel made up their minds remains a mystery.

"We'll never know what actually went on in that room in this case," McGeorge School of Law Professor John Myers said.

He points out the grand jury can serve several legal purposes.

"A lot of people don't realize that the purpose of the grand jury is not just to indict people, it's to protect people," he said.

Myers dismisses outrage that the legal system failed in this case, pitting an armed white police officer against an unarmed black teen.

"The old saying is that a prosecutor could convince a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich if the prosecutor really wanted to, but there have been many times in our history when a grand jury has refused to issue an indictment," he said.

But civil rights attorney John Burris, who represented Oscar Grant's family in a deadly BART shooting, says the evidence in his career has been overwhelming—police officers in deadly shooting cases rarely face convictions.

"Generally they're not convicted in these physical force cases, unless it's just so outrageous," he said.

Burris said the BART shooting case was the only one in his 30-year career when a law enforcement officer received a conviction.

Just how politics enters the courtroom is difficult to prove. Myers points out that politics in this case may have played a role in the decision to use a grand jury at all.

"I think in some respects, prosecutors are looking for a degree of cover," he said. "When they take a case to the grand jury, then its the grand jury's decision, not there's to file criminal charges."

RELATED: Full transcript of grand jury proceedings

Thousands of pages of evidence are now publicly available showing what the grand jury was presented, but the jurors are sworn to secrecy for life.

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