Roy Evans, the Smyth County Commonwealth’s Attorney, moved to dismiss the charge of involuntary manslaughter in court today against the 14 year old half-brother of Rebecca Wagoner. A judge granted the request as reported here by TriCities.com.

This was a no win situation for any prosecutor. I do wonder why Evans saw the need to even bring charges in the case given the fact he called a conviction “unlikely” in the above linked news report. As a prosecutor, shouldn’t you be sure you have enough evidence to get a conviction and are able to get that conviction? Evans should have thought this out before filing any charges in this case. It appears there may have been a rush to judgment in this matter.

Evans’ filing of charges further upset and disturbed this family which has been through enough. If there was no sign of an intentional malice act in the death, charges should not have been filed. Even though the law says one thing, you should use a judgment call in applying it in cases like these. The 14 year old will have the memories of that horrific night to live with for the rest of his life.

Evans’ filing of charges in this matter was pointless and further aggravated a very delicate situation. Nonetheless, it is good he came to his senses and made the right call not to proceed any further.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 25th, 2005 at 11:19 pm and is filed under Smyth County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.