NASCAR: Sending Stewart’s Case To Grand Jury Was The Right Call
Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
Last week it was announced that the investigation into the death of Kevin Ward Jr. and Tony Stewarts subsequent involvement had come to a close. On Tuesday it was announced that the District Attorney who was overseeing the case had decided to send it to be heard before a grand jury. While this announcement has many in the NASCAR community up at arms, it was ultimately the right move to make given the circumstances of this case.
The DA who oversaw this case and the prosecutors office for which he works was put into a precarious situation when it came to deciding what to do with the findings of the investigation.
Let’s say that the DA had decided that there wasn’t enough evidence to support any theory that would lead to Stewart being found legally responsible for the accident. In this scenario the DA would announce his findings and the case would be dropped. If this were to have happened the outcry from the family of Ward Jr. would have been immense. The DA would have been the target for a great deal of criticism. The general public already believes that those with wealth and fame receive a “free pass” in life and the DA dropping the case against Stewart in the aftermath where a young man is dead would certainly fall into that category in the public eye.
Granted, those who support Stewart would fell vindicated and that justice was served.
On the other side of things the DA could have decided that there was sufficient evidence against Stewart and as a result could have charged him with a crime. In this scenario Stewart obviously would have been arrested and would have legal proceedings in his near future. Had the DA brought up charges against Stewart the attention would have shifted to people calling out the DA for trying to make a name for himself. Stewart and NASCAR fans would call the investigation a witch hunt and claim that the DA and prosecutors office were trying to become famous off of Stewart’s name.
Instead we have what actually took place and that is the case being sent to the grand jury. When a case is sent to a grand jury an anonymous group of men and women take in all of the information and they ultimately decide whether or not this case will proceed to an actual trial.
Given the circumstances of what happened and the people involved, this was the right move to make for the DA. Whether you agree or not, the family of Ward Jr. deserved to have a grand jury hear this case. Presenting a case in front of a grand jury is one of the steps in our legal system and it’s part of due process. Sending the case to the grand jury also takes the prosecutors office out of the public eye and allows for the focus to remain on the facts and the evidence in the case. If the evidence is there to charge Stewart with a crime then it will still be there for a grand jury; much like a grand jury will see a lack of evidence if nothing was found to find Stewart to be at fault during the investigation.
At the end of the day the lives of many have been forever altered by the tragic events that took place in Upstate New York on that racetrack. Both sides of the investigation want justice but they want it in different ways. The outcome of this saga will not sit well with everyone which is fine. However, when it’s all said and done the focus of this needs to remain of facts and evidence. The best way for the truth to come through in this scenario was to take it out of the DA’s hands and place it in the hands of Stewart’s peers.
Christopher Olmstead is the Editor of BeyondTheFlag.com on the FanSided Network. Follow us on Twitter @Beyond_The_Flag and “Like” us on Facebook.