Veteran attorney Lanny Davis, the long-time special counsel to President Bill Clinton, says he would not have put the Michael Brown shooting case in front of a grand jury.
"I would have said, why not do a preliminary hearing, which is a substitute for a grand jury," Davis said Wednesday to Rick Ungar, guest host of "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
"You have a transparently open hearing where everybody can be cross-examined and people representing the family can have their lawyer … The hearing is about probable cause rather than a verdict."
Story continues below video.
Note: Watch Newsmax TV now on DIRECTV Ch. 349 and DISH Ch. 223
Get Newsmax TV on your cable system – Click Here Now
The Missouri jury decided not to charge Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, a white officer, in the fatal shooting of Brown, a black teen, on Aug. 9 — an incident that sparked weeks of racial unrest.
After the grand jury decision was made public Monday night, protesters rioted, torching and looting businesses, and setting a police vehicle on fire.
Davis said it was highly unusual that the grand jury testimony — usually kept secret — was released to the public, but he understood why.
"In this situation, the reason why the grand jury transcripts were released, which is very unusual, is the highly political and racial sensitivity of this case," he said.
Davis said he had mixed emotions about the grand jury finding.
"I had my second guesses ... I kind of thought the officer acted irresponsibly, negligently, recklessly," Davis said.
"It doesn’t matter what I think. We always do that on jury verdicts that we disagree with. I disagreed with [the verdict on] O.J. Simpson for goodness sakes, who I have no doubt was guilty.
"But this is our system and there were 15 people, as far as I know some of whom were African-American who heard all the evidence."
Davis said he felt bad for Brown's parents, and for the Ferguson community which was plagued by rioting, looting and arson, but added, "Somebody has to say that this is the way our system works."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.