A federal appeals court says a judge wrongly tossed a lawsuit by a woman who wants to speak publicly about her time on the grand jury that declined to indict a Ferguson police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man.
The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday reinstated the lawsuit by the woman identified as "Grand Juror Doe."
The 8th Circuit concluded U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel should have put the lawsuit's proceedings on hold until a Missouri court decides the constitutionality of a state law barring grand jurors from publicly discussing the secret proceedings.
The lawsuit claims St. Louis County's prosecutor mischaracterized the jury's findings when he announced in November 2014 that the panel declined to indict officer Darren Wilson in Michael Brown's death.
