ECBAWM partner Jonathan Abady, one of the lawyers for the family of Tamir Rice, appeared on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” to discuss the non-indictment of the police officers who shot and killed Tamir, a 12-year-old boy, in Cleveland in 2014. The grand jury’s decision not to indict the officers — made at the recommendation of Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty — is “very distressing” and “disheartening,” Mr. Abady said. “I think in conventional parlance, it’s usually referred to as a whitewash,” he added.

Rather than investigating and prosecuting this shooting, Mr. Abady explained, prosecutor McGinty “was canvassing and scouring the nation for someone, anyone, who would say that this shooting of this 12-year-old child was justified. And it took him almost a year.” McGinty hired multiple so-called experts with “clear pro-law-enforcement biases” to opine to the grand jury that the shooting was justified — an “almost unprecedented” move at this stage of the proceedings,” Mr. Abady said.

“It’s a tremendous disservice to the men and women in uniform who are actually doing their jobs competently, conscientiously, and professionally for this kind of thing to happen,” Mr. Abady added.

Mr. Abady also appeared on CNN to discuss the case.

The Rice family is represented by ECBAWM attorneys Jonathan Abady, Earl Ward, and Zoe Salzman.