Atlanta DA who charged cop with murder in Wendy's incident ousted in primary . . . by 45 points

Now this is what I call justice.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard engaged in a panicky capitulation to mob justice when, in mid-June, he charged Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe with felony murder in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks. Not only did Howard level the charges before the Georgia Bureau of Investigation had even finished investigating the shooting (that investigation is still not finished, by the way), but he also did so in spite of clear video evidence that Brooks had aimed and attempted to fire a deadly weapon at Rolfe during the notorious incident on June 12.

We covered everything that was wrong with Howard’s charging decision at the time:

How, as a prosecutor, do you charge someone with felony murder when the investigation of the incident is not even complete, and thus the evidence in the case has not yet been handed over to you? You do it because you’re not interested in the evidence. You’re responding to public pressure from a mob that’s already made up its mind and won’t wait one more day for you to do what it demands of you.

In other words, Officer Rolfe got thrown to the wolves. I don’t want to prejudge the case any more than the DA’s office already did – although it’s not my job to not prejudge; it is theirs – but what I do know is that Officer Rolfe followed basic officer training in firing his weapon in a situation where a suspect points a weapon at an officer.

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Oh, by the way, according to Georgia law, a taser is a deadly weapon.

Atlanta police understand exactly what happened. Politicians have sold them out. It’s not just a matter of filing charges against Officer Rolfe. It’s also a matter of prejudging the case before the evidence is in, and filing charges obviously in response to public pressure and nothing more. You can say “no justice, no peace” all you want, but this is not how justice is supposed to work. And any police officer in Atlanta has to know that, when threatened by possible harm at the hands of a violence suspect, the politicians might try to send them to prison for defending themselves.

Clearly, Howard rushed to file charges against Rolfe because the passion of the moment was very high, and he didn’t want the mob turning on him because he didn’t give them what they wanted immediately – which was the head of a cop on a spike.

Yesterday, Howard faced a different kind of mob – the voters – and they implemented their own form of justice. As Hawk Harrelson might have said: Hegone.

It appears Fulton County will have its first new district attorney in nearly two decades. Incumbent Paul Howard was beaten by more than 45 percentage points Tuesday in a runoff against Fani Willis.

Howard recently came under fire after the FOX 5 I-Team uncovered the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was looking into allegations that Howard used grant money from the City of Atlanta to nonprofits under his control. One of those non-profits paid Howard at least $140,000 in city grant money. He agreed to pay a $6,500 state ethics fine for failing to disclose his role as a CEO for two non-profits.

The GBI was investigating the way grand jury subpoenas were issued by Howard’s office in the Rayshard Brooks murder case.

There is clearly more at play here than just the Rolfe/Brooks case. Howard appears steeped in corruption, and the Atlanta media are choosing to emphasize that more than the abuse of power Howard perpetrated in the Rolfe case.

But the whole thing paints one unmistakable picture: Paul Howard, who served as Fulton County’s DA for 20 years, was irresponsible in his use of the power of that office. He disregarded the rights of Garrett Rolfe – as well as basic facts and established procedure – in charging him with 11 felony counts. And he appears to have siphoned money intended to support nonprofit organizations for his own purposes.

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Prosecutors are in very powerful positions, and they are able to bring absolute ruin to people’s lives simply by choosing to charge them with crimes. Usually when prosecutors do this irresponsibly, there is little or no accountability because the public tends to be unaware. In this case, Howard’s misdeeds caught up with him.

Hopefully the new DA will dismiss the charges against Garrett Rolfe, at least long enough to let the GBI complete its investigation and recommend a course of action based on the facts, not on the emotional fever pitch of the moment.

I don’t know what Paul Howard is going to do, but hopefully it won’t be something that allows him to wield power over anyone else, because he has proven he cannot do so responsibly.