Jefferson County has had a couple of high-profile releases of suspects, and while that is anguishing in some senses, it's encouraging in others.
In September, a suspect in the killing of an Altheimer man was released after District Judge Kim Bridgforth ruled that the evidence against the man was insufficient to establish probable cause.
That was not an easy pill to swallow for Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Hunter or for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, which was investigating the homicide for some time.
"Investigators put a significant amount of time in on this case, going through it, collecting evidence, conducting interviews, submitting that evidence to the crime lab and waiting to get those results back," Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr. said at the time. "I just respectfully disagree with the judge that probable cause was not established. I think it was more than established, and I'm surprised surprised and disappointed to say the least."
And yet, that is why sheriffs and police chiefs do not get the last word.
Then, this past week, the prosecutor's office released an 18-year-old suspect for the same reasons in a case that involved the September killing of an elderly man sitting in his carport.
"The rule is that once you arrest somebody on probable cause, you've got 60 days to bring formal charges or to release them and the issue of charging somebody takes into consideration other factors such as whether you have enough evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," Hunter said. "So the decision was made that there was insufficient evidence to charge him at this time, so he was released."
Certainly, like everyone else, we are keenly interested in individuals being held accountable for their actions.
Why were these suspects released? The answer could be for any number of reasons. In the end, however, the releases show that our system works. Judge Bridgforth was the gatekeeper in the one instance. She knew precisely how hard the men and women of the sheriff's office worked to arrest someone for a heinous crime, and yet, she knew the standards for putting him on trial had not been met.
The same is true for Prosecutor Hunter, who was unable to pursue the charges for which the person was arrested.
Are these people innocent? Maybe and maybe not. We all know that there is a difference between arresting the wrong person and arresting the right person but being unable to prove it. But in our justice system, there is no room for either, and it's encouraging to see that play out as it reinforces our belief that people do get fair trials and fair treatment.