CopOnce wrote:... but the period of the investigation by the DA's office is enough to make you lose weight, lose sleep and turn a person into a bucket of bolts.
Nothing is 'swift' in the criminal justice system. You can be completely innocent with a half dozen eye witnesses and you'll still be plagued by doubts and fear as you await (anywhere from 30 days to a couple of years) a decision from the DA or Grand Jury and see the way the media butchers the story.
For example, a man bursts into another man's apartment brandishing a knife and charges the resident and multiple other persons in apartment.
Resident shoots intruder, fatally.
Resident, 18 years old, calls 911 and requests police and EMT, then panics and flees the scene.
Resident is transported to PD by relatives and cooperates with investigation.
Hours later, local media reports "Police are searching for a killer in [city]" and shows video of the apartment so anyone with basic research skill can find out who the resident was.
Months of anxious waiting later, DA declines to even present case to grand jury, but meanwhile the resident has been evicted, the apartment management has lied to everyone who called and asked about the resident and told them "oh, he's in jail" (resident was never arrested or even detained!). Media spreads this rumor on news sites, etc. etc. etc.
Not to mention all the wanna-be PIs who call police every time they see said resident somewhere because they think he must be wanted, since media never printed any retractions to the orginal "police searching for a killer" story.
And said resident is unable to go public because there's no statute of limitations and since there's not been a no-bill or official case filing, there is no protection under double jeopardy. He just gets to live with it hanging over his head the rest of his life.
The average mainstream reporter in this country cares nothing about facts or discretion. They only care about making the story as sensational as possible.