Vol. 4, No. 24
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October 15, 2007
Nevada's Online State News Journal
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COPYWRITING
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Inquest Law Fails
In Intent: ACLU
Others Question Whether
New Law Is Step Forward
Clark County is still having a difficult time convincing the public that its inquest laws are designed to be fair to all parties involved. A coroner's inquest is held when a law enforcement officer kills an alleged criminal suspect. In Clark County virtually every death has been considered justifiable. It is the proceedings that have come under fire since a murder suspect was shot in the back while handcuffed and the shooting was considered justifiable. Committees have been working to make the law more equal but some say what has come from the County Commission is far from what was expected.
The Country has revised the inquest ordinance, but those who have studied the new law are not pleased with what they see. Nothing has changed, they say, and the system is not addressing the problem. Under the old law there were hearing officers appointed by the district attorney and the new law calls for the inquest to be conducted by Justices of the Peace. The thinking, JPs are elected and can be held accountable.
One of the most controversial parts of the old law was the district attorney's role in which prosecutors were allowed to question uniformed officers but rarely if ever included the deceased's family members and never an attorney representing the best interests of the family. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups say the closeness of the DA and the cops created an unfair atmosphere. The new law will allow representatives from the State Attorney General's Office to conduct the examinations and will allow, under some restrictions, representation for the family.
According to representatives from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) the closeness between prosecutors and cops created an atmosphere of character assassination instead of court hearing. The current law does not address the rights of family members at the hearings according to Gary Peck of the ACLU. According to Peck, witnesses for the family would have to present their testimony in writing and it would have to be accepted by the hearing officer before the inquest jury would hear it. Peck would rather have the entire process open and feels that is the only fair way to conduct an inquest.
All of the weight of testimony and the proceedings themselves, favor the police, even in the new inquest law, according to Peck. Police involved death leads to findings of justifiable death in every case in Clark County. Peck specifically mentioned one case in which a person described as an expert testified that a jail inmate who was choked to death died from, and Peck can't resist a small smile, "sudden inmate death syndrome."
One major problem remains, that of attorneys being able to question or cross-examine a police officer during the inquest proceedings. The hearings, by design, are not adversarial in nature and many believe this hampers those seeking the truth. There is a closeness between the DA's representatives, the police in question, and the hearing officers. The inquest jury is left in the dark when questions and answers appear to have discrepancies. There is no cross-examination.
The one constant that comes from many of the coroner's inquests in Clark County is civil law suits, generally at the federal level, that in turn cost the county in settlements and findings. There have been innumerable shooting deaths, police involved, that are deemed justifiable that end up being turned over in court.
Police in Clark County work under the same procedurals as most police including when they can draw and fire a weapon, and too often, in Clark County it seems that a threat to an officer can be as benign as giving a serious stare, or, as in one case, carrying a basketball in a threatening manner. What brought the issue to a head was the shooting of Swauve Lopez. Lopez was 17 at the time of his death and had been picked up by Metro officers as a suspect in a homicide. He had his hands cuffed behind his back when he was able to get out of the police cruiser and try to run away. He was shot in the back, and the coroner's inquest called the shooting fully justified.
Will the new ordinance make these proceedings as fair as general court hearings? Most outside police agencies say probably not, but that it might be a step in the right direction. Police, the same as any citizen, must be held accountable for their actions and a coroner's inquest has always been the answer in the past. It hasn't been a very good answer in the minds of many, and police involved shooting deaths remain high in Clark County.
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