Who will decide the charges in the Texas Gay Bashing?

October 28, 2014 9:34 PM

McCleish Christmas Benham was arrested at the DFW Airport by Airport police after attacking a gay man in the airport. News reports are saying he is not being charged with a hate crime. Can someone tell me definitively who would make the decision about what he is charged with?
posted by hworth to Law & Government (6 answers total)

Definitively who makes the decision? The grand jury.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:48 PM on October 28, 2014

Will there be a grand jury in a case like this? I thought there would just be a criminal complaint?
posted by hworth at 9:58 PM on October 28, 2014

The Fifth Amendment requires a grand jury for any indictment.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:41 PM on October 28, 2014

I think a DA/ADA plays some role in working out a charge, too.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 11:02 PM on October 28, 2014

He's just being charged with assault which is a misdemeanor and a state crime so almost certainly it will be a judge rather than a grand jury. It was the DA who determined and suggested the appropriate charge. Most states allow a judge to charge felonies in addition to the grand jury.

The feds could intervene if they thought a hate crime had occurred and the locals were not appropriately charging the crime.
But motive matters. Just calling a protected class a slur in the act of assaulting them does not necessarily make it a hate crime. It does certainly make you an asshole
posted by JPD at 3:37 AM on October 29, 2014

The Fifth Amendment does not require grand juries for state charges. States which adopt relevant procedures are able to bring suspects to trial on charges as high as a capital murder on the basis of an "information" -- a finding made by a judge analogous to an indictment.
posted by MattD at 6:57 AM on October 29, 2014