Justice: Columnist judges without facts in hand

Re: “Manny Ellis deserves justice; Breonna Taylor didn’t get it,” (TNT, 9/27).

Who made columnist Matt Driscoll judge and jury in the death of Taylor? My understanding is that all testimonies and evidence presented to grand juries are confidential information.

Assuming that to be true, Driscoll based his column solely on information gathered from the news media. He was very critical of the grand jury’s findings with no access to the information the grand jury used to base its decision.

He calls it “perverted American justice.” He says that “when the time comes – and it should come as soon as possible – the evidence collected in Ellis’ death must be weighed fairly, without the blinders of bias or preferential treatment for police.”

Driscoll used an article from the Seattle Times and an interview with Ellis’s sister as his evidence and testimony on which to base his inflamatory, factless column. His mind is made up without seeing any sworn testimony and evidence.

I hope that if I ever have to face a jury trial, he is not one of the jurors.

This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 9:47 AM with the headline "Justice: Columnist judges without facts in hand."