It has been more than three years since Freda Waiters’ only child, Ariston, was slain on the street of Atlanta’s Union City. Today, she is one step closer to finding out why. On December 14, 2011, nineteen year-old black youth Ariston Waiters received two bullets through the back of his spine, both fired at point-blank range. Waiters was unarmed; his assailant, Luther Lewis, a white Union City police officer with a history of disciplinary incidents, documented as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). By the time the case reached the Fulton County grand jury, however, Lewis’ disciplinary file was empty. It remains so to this day.   District Attorney Paul Howard is responsible for the prosecution of all felony violations in Fulton County, Georgia, where Union City is located. Homicide of any variety is a felony – without statute of limitations. In office since 1997, Howard is charged with presenting each case to an unbiased grand jury on behalf of the State of Georgia. The grand jury is secret, except when the subject of the inquiry is an officer of the law. Both Lewis and his counsel were present at the grand jury, who determined there was not enough evidence to return a Bill of Indictment against the officer.

A Fulton County Grand Jury declined to indict Union City police officer Luther Lewis on August 8, 2015 for the December 14, 2011 murder of 19-year-old Ariston Waiters. Lewis was attempting to arrest Waiters without probable cause that he had been involved in any crime. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard stated that the arrest was “illegal.” Evidence and Luther’s own testimony showed Luther pulled his gun and shot Waiters in the back twice. Mr. Waiters was face down on the ground with his hands behind his back while being handcuffed.  This was the second grand jury inquiry into the Waiters case. Howard reopened the case after news media investigations revealed that four incidents involving Luther had been removed from his file and not presented to the first grand jury and that DNA evidence did not support the claim by Lewis that Waiters touched his gun. The DNA results and facts involving the Union City police record cover-up were presented to the second grand jury.    But both grand juries, like many others around the country, could not have been properly informed of their duties by the prosecutors and Superior Court judges. Georgia code for grand jurors explains that “…it is their duty as jurors to make presentments of any violations of the laws which they may know to have been committed at any previous time which are not barred by the statute of limitations.” [O.C.G.A. 15-12-74] In the Waiters case, there was no real dispute that violations occurred. By failing to indict Lewis with a “True bill” for any type of violation committed, the grand jury did not fulfill its obligations.