After Washington police nearly beat him to death for walking while high, will prosecution against him continue?
After Washington police nearly beat him to death for walking while high, will prosecution against him continue?
Recharged with crimes the state Supreme Court threw out, Zamora charges the prosecution with misconduct and vindictiveness. The prosecutor says circumstances changed.
Zamora, who tested positive for amphetamine, methamphetamine and marijuana in the hospital, “was guilty of nothing more than walking while high on drugs,” Justice Charles Johnson wrote for the unanimous Supreme Court.
In a concurring opinion, Chief Justice Steven González wrote that “the jury was asked to decide, among other things, whether Joseph Zamora, a United States citizen, assaulted a police officer’s knuckles with the back of his head.”
[County prosecutor Kevin McCrae] then made an abrupt about-face: He began charging Zamora with the same charges. Zamora has served more than a full prison term and couldn’t serve any more time even if convicted.
“Mr. Zamora still refuses to accept responsibility for his actions,” McCrae writes. “It is well within the Prosecutor’s discretion to continue with this case.”
Being swayed by reality would require having a drop of moral integrity. No prosecutor has that.
Some progressive ones like Chesa Boudin and George Gascón do, but of course "tough on crime" liberals and conservatives gang up on them to avoid them toppling the toxic status quo that's so lucrative to demagogues and other bad actors 🤬