New Report Indicates Grand Jury Wanted to Indict Ramsey Family in Murder of Jon Benet Ramsey
BERMAN: This morning we have new details in the case of John Benet Ramsey. A local paper, "The Boulder Daily Camera," reports that back in 1994 a grand jury voted to indict Jon and Patsy Ramsey for abuse that led to Jon Benet's death.</s>BALDWIN: But the district attorney declined to prosecute, said he didn't have enough evidence to go to trial, and a former assistant DA said that was that right move.</s>BILL WISE, FORMER FIRST ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY, BOULDER, COLORADO: The state of evidence in that case was just inadequate to file a charge in my opinion, and that obviously was his opinion too.</s>BALDWIN: Lin Wood is an attorney who has prosecuted multiple defamation cases on behalf of the Ramsey family. Mr. Wood, good morning to you. Let's just begin, look, you have been in touch with John Ramsey. What is your reaction and what is his reaction to this?</s>LIN WOOD, RAMSEY FAMILY ATTORNEY: John and Patsy were told back in 1999 that they should expect to be indicted. You have to go back 15, 16 years, remember there was a media frenzy of false accusations against this family. There was incompetent and credulous Boulder police investigation on this. The investigation focused on day one on the Ramsey family and refused to focus on the evidence that would lead to the killer of this child. So they expected they would be indicted and they expected they would have their names cleared and be found innocent in front of the jury. So if this is true, in terms what anonymous sources have said, it really is a testament to the courage of Alex Hunter, the district attorney, to stand up and fulfill his oath of office as a prosecutor and to not bring charges that would have resulted in a gross miscarriage of justice, because innocent people would have been charged with a crime they did not commit.</s>BERMAN: He said everyone is sworn to secrecy. A local paper did speak to some jurors. This is what one of them said. He said "We didn't know who did wan what, but we felt the adults in the house may have done something, and that they certainly could have prevented, or they could have helped her, and they didn't." They are not saying that they thought they killed, but saying they thought they were somehow were involved.</s>WOOD: Or saying as a grand jury that they did not know what happened. We do know if you fast forward nine years later, 2008, advances in DNA technology in terms of r retrieval and testing led to DNA evidence that exonerated the Ramsey family, that proved, if this story is true, the grand jury was wrong, and, again, I think elevated Alex Hunter to the status of hero for preventing the miscarriage of justice.</s>BERMAN: How rare is it that the grand jury to say we want to indict and the district attorney to say we are not going to prosecute?</s>WOOD: The saying goes that a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich, and here there's not even a sandwich. I think you had a grand jury that was likely confused and perhaps could have had some of that confusion cleared up if John and Patsy Ramsey could have been allowed to testify before the grand jury. They offered repeatedly to do so but they were never allowed the opportunity.</s>BALDWIN: This goes all the way back to 1996. Is this just one of those things that will forever be a misery and any given time, some reporter, some tidbit will come out and continue to haunt John Ramsey?</s>WOOD: John Ramsey and his son Burke and other Ramsey family members, this is going to impact the Ramsey family for generations because there is always going to be some reporter, like the reporter in this case whose reporting has been inaccurate in the past about the Ramsey family, who is going to want to seize that sensational headline and grab some attention and write and disparage this family. But they have been exonerated and I think it's important for the public to recognize that the real blockbuster news was the DNA evidence found on this child's body and on her clothing that clearly is the DNA of the killer and perhaps hopefully one day we'll get a DNA hit and the killer will be brought to justice.</s>BALDWIN: Lin Wood, thank you so much for us in Atlanta this morning.</s>BERMAN: It is amazing, 16, 17 years, and we're still talking about it. Ahead on STARTING POINT, crashes are nothing new at the X Games, but this one is just awful, and it has a star fighting for his life this morning. We'll be right back.