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| Van Dyke is one of many thousands of criminal defendants to pass through this nearly-century-old building |
I
STATE THAT as a fact beyond dispute; McDonald is dead and buried and not going
to have the life his parents would have dreamed for him because of Van Dyke’s
actions.
Which
is why this entire trial is not about what Van Dyke did – but why!
Because
we do give our police significant authority to use force, including deadly
force, in the performance of their jobs. Which is why defense attorneys have
tried to present the image of a McDonald who was strung out on drugs to the
point where he was out of control.
Which
made that knife he was waving about a very deadly weapon to anybody who
happened to be near him.
IT’S
CLEAR FROM the four days of testimony that prosecutors presented that they want
us to think of this as an open-and-shut case. Van Dyke fired multiple gunshots
into McDonald’s body and he died. So now, Van Dyke must go to prison.
But
life is never that clear-cut, even though all of us want to believe life’s
questions can all be answered with “yes” or “no.”
So
when the Van Dyke defense begins its work come Monday at the Criminal Courts
building, the big issue will be whether Van Dyke himself will take the stand
and submit to questions about what he did that night in ’14.
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| VAN DYKE: Will he be able to clear his name? |
Van
Dyke has the legal right to refuse to say anything. He can’t be forced to take
the stand and submit to questions. We require prosecutors to prove their own
cases – and do not permit them to intimidate people into testifying against
themselves.
IN
FACT, MANY criminal cases do not result in a defendant taking the stand. I have
seen countless trials in which a defendant does not put up any defense – with
attorneys arguing that prosecutors so clearly failed to prove their case they
don’t feel the need to say or do anything for the record.
And
yes, it has worked, because the burden of proof is on prosecutors to show their
case is legitimate. I’m sure Van Dyke would like to think he falls into that
category.
But
there are people who want to hear Van Dyke’s own words about that night. It’s
almost as though they’re a group of “Ricky Ricardos,” telling Van Dyke’s “Lucy”
to “splain” himself and what he was thinking when his reaction four years ago
to encountering McDonald was to pull out his pistol and fire 16 shots into
Laquan’s body.
But
if he does that, he also opens himself up to questioning from prosecutors, who
with their “yes” or “no” mentality will be more than willing to put pointed
questions to him meant to make Van Dyke appear to be mean and vindictive.
IN
FACT, I have seen criminal trials where prosecutors are so demanding of a “yes”
or “no”-type answer that they refuse to allow the elaboration of detail usually
required to get at the whole truth of a situation.
Despite
the claims of legal officials that our judicial system is meant to elicit
truth, my own experiences in covering courts throughout the years have led me
to believe the reality is that prosecutors and defense attorneys are given the
chance to present their own versions of what they want us to believe happened –
then we leave it up to that mythical “jury of our peers” to decide which
version we believe.
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| Will police reputation escape taint? |
So
does Van Dyke have enough faith in his memory of what happened that night that
he’ll be willing to submit to prosecutorial questions meant to trip him up?
Will his take on the events sway anyone who has spent the past four years
developing their own impression of what they believe happened that night?
Or
will it become more fodder for the cynics of our society that this trial –
which is progressing much more quickly than I would have expected – was
“rigged” from the beginning?
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