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The mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice was so devastated that a grand jury refused to indict the two Cleveland cops involved in her child's death that she cried until she could barely speak, her lawyer said, according to WKYC-TV.
Rice's lawyer, Subodh Chandra, said that both he and the grieving mother believe that Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Prosecutor Timothy McGinty did not want Officer Timothy Loehmann, who fired the fatal shots within seconds of arriving on the scene, to face criminal charges.
"The prosecutor's behavior was corrupt," Chandra insisted, arguing that McGinty selectively leaked information about the case under the "guise of transparency." "And it was in the sense that it was so extremely biased in favor of exonerating the officers that Tamir Rice never had a chance. The Rice family never had a chance.
"[Samaria Rice] was still clinging to that thread of hope even though the prosecutor had more than shown his hand in his efforts to try to orchestrate an exoneration for these officers," he added.
Chandra also took issue with McGinty's decision not to cross-examine the officers during the testimony before the grand jury.
"Prosecutor McGinty failed not only the Rice family, he failed this entire community," Chandra said, according to the news station. "He failed the criminal-justice system."
Read more at USA Today.
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