The findings from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s criminal investigation of the officers involved in the deadly September police shooting of Steve Perkins are in the hands of the Morgan County District Attorney’s office.
On Tuesday, Morgan County DA Scott Anderson shared that he and his team have started to review the findings on the Steve Perkins case from ALEA, in anticipation of presenting the case to a grand jury.
Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard has spent decades in a courtroom. Many of those years, handing cases over to a grand jury.
WAAY 31 sat down with DA Rob Broussard to get the full picture of what goes on inside a DA’s office when they receive a case from the state.
Broussard explained, “You will review the evidence and kind of assess what you have, with the thought in mind, is this prosecutable? Were there laws in the state of Alabama that were broken? And then you would decide whether you're going to present it to a grand jury or not. Everyone may have a slightly different approach to it, but essentially it's the same; you're reviewing evidence like any other case and going forward with it.â€
How long could this review process of the Steve Perkins case take for the Morgan County District Attorney's office? Broussard says things like how involved the case is and how much manpower is available factor into the timeline.
DA Broussard says if, after reviewing a case, a DA’s office believes laws were broken, then they will decide to present the case to a grand jury. That grand jury is made up of eighteen people who will hear all the facts and evidence of the case.
But the district attorney is not actually the one breaking down the details of the case to those eighteen people, Rob Broussard explained, adding, “You have to have somebody present it to the grand jury, and it's not a lawyer from the DA’s office. It would be, most likely, the ALEA investigator who is subpoenaed to the grand jury. So he’s telling the grand jury what their investigation revealed. And you know it may involve demonstrative evidence like body cameras or whatever.â€
Broussard continued, saying, “There's certain rules of evidence that require a competent witness. And we in the DA’s office aren't competent witnesses. We’re more like a director in a movie, but we have to have the casting done right. And the casting has to be a witness who actually conducted the investigation.â€
After a grand jury hears a case, they decide if the evidence presented shows probable cause that laws were broken. There has to be at least thirteen people out of the eighteen in agreement on this.
Broussard explained the difference between a standard jury trial and a grand jury trial, saying, “The standard in a jury trial is proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, which is a certain high standard. ‘I have to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt.’ Where a grand jury is: I have to have probable cause to believe that this person committed a crime. So, in other words, I believe they probably did it.â€
People in Decatur are hoping the Morgan County District Attorney's office will reveal exactly what happened the night Steve Perkins was killed by police. A group of people protested outside the Morgan County Courthouse a day after they received the Steve Perkins case from ALEA.
Madison County DA Rob Broussard tells WAAY 31 he doesn't have any reservations about Morgan County DA Scott Anderson and the way he handles cases, sharing, “I don’t know a finer DA than Scott Anderson, and I mean that. He’s a good, just man. And I know that he handles his office like I feel like we handle ours. He will give it a fair shake at whatever it is, and I don’t know what the evidence is, but he’s a good man.â€
How long it might take for the Steve Perkins case to end up in the hands of a grand jury is something we’re still waiting to learn. We do want to note that this is completely separate from the appeal hearings of the four officers involved. Those are handled by the city of Decatur’s personnel board and will start at the end of next month.
