ACLU MN’s Chuck Samuelson (photo courtesy The UpTake)
The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota is asking the governor, attorney general and Ramsey County Attorney to appoint an independent prosecutor to handle the case of Philando Castile, who was fatally shot by a police officer in Falcon Heights. A-C-L-U Minnesota spokesman Chuck Samuelson says, “We just think it would be better and cleaner if the investigation and whatever results from it was handled by a group of professional attorneys who don’t work with the police and who aren’t subject to election.”
Samuelson says “the people of Minnesota deserve to know the truth, and that is more likely to happen if an independent prosecutor is appointed to take an impartial look at the facts.” He adds Ramsey County Attorney John Choi is highly competent and ethical, but it’s better to move the investigation to “somebody who doesn’t have the same sort of pressures put on him, because that would allow community members to have more faith in the process.”