Many people may have hoped this would be one of those rare exceptions, but to anybody paying attention, the Ferguson grand jury‘s decision to give Officer Darren Wilson a pass on the shooting of Michael Brown was a foregone conclusion.

The road to the inevitable was unusual, however. Grand juries aren‘t there to decide guilt. They‘re only there to determine whether probable cause exists to hand down an indictment. This happens thousands of times a year all over the country, and it‘s a true rarity when indictments are not handed down.