The Cleveland NAACP is not giving up on its efforts to get grand jury transcripts from the Tamir Rice case. This week, the group filed an appeal of Cuyahoga County Judge Nancy McDonnell’s ruling, denying the release.
Grand jury proceedings are held behind closed doors but portions of the transcript were made public by then-County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty.
The NAACP’s Michael Nelson says McGinty had already released significant information and there’s no longer a compelling reason to withhold the rest of the transcript.
“What we want to know is, was there a recommendation to the grand jury," Nelson said. "What was the reaction by the grand jury to that recommendation if there was one? And if there wasn’t a recommendation to the grand jury, what was said to the grand jury to justify a lack of a recommendation?”
In December, 2015, a grand jury declined to indict two Cleveland police officers in the fatal shooting of 12-year old Tamir Rice outside Cudell recreation center a year earlier.