Michael Brown Case: Grand Jury, Settlement, and Consent Decree

The Michael Brown case began with the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014, and produced no criminal charges against Wilson at either the state or federal level. Its legal legacy sits elsewhere: a sealed $1.5 million wrongful death settlement, a Department of Justice report documenting systemic constitutional violations by the Ferguson Police Department, and a federal consent decree that the city is still working to satisfy more than a decade later.

What Happened on Canfield Drive

Minutes before the encounter, surveillance video showed Brown taking cigarillos from a nearby convenience store and pushing a clerk. A dispatch call describing the theft went out over police radio. Officer Wilson initially stopped Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson because they were walking in the middle of Canfield Drive, then realized during the stop that they matched the dispatch description.¹

A struggle broke out at Wilson’s patrol vehicle. Wilson said Brown reached through the window and fought for control of his firearm. Two shots were fired inside the car, one striking Brown’s hand at close range; forensic analysis found soot deposits and thermal damage consistent with Brown’s hand being within inches of the muzzle. Brown then ran east on Canfield Drive. Wilson pursued on foot and fired again as Brown turned back toward him. All entry wounds were to the front of Brown’s body.¹

The street-walking ordinance that gave Wilson his initial reason for the stop, Ferguson Municipal Code Section 44-344, was later repealed in April 2016.²

Why the State Grand Jury Did Not Indict

The St. Louis County Police Department led the initial criminal investigation under the direction of the St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office.¹ A grand jury, meaning a panel of citizens who decide whether enough evidence exists to bring criminal charges, heard evidence over several months. It reviewed roughly 5,000 pages of testimony from about 60 witnesses. That volume is extraordinary. Most grand juries see a single witness, typically the arresting officer.

Prosecutors presented the full range of possible charges under Missouri law, from first-degree murder through voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. On November 24, 2014, the grand jury returned a “no true bill,” finding insufficient probable cause to indict Wilson on any charge. No state criminal case was ever filed.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch drew heavy criticism for the way he ran the proceeding. Rather than build a case for a specific charge, he presented all available evidence and let the grand jurors sort it out. Critics said the approach buried the jury under contradictory material and made an indictment unlikely; supporters called it transparent. McCulloch then released the full grand jury transcripts publicly, a rare move under Missouri law, which generally prohibits grand jurors from disclosing what they reviewed.

Why the Federal Civil Rights Case Was Declined

The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI opened a separate criminal investigation on August 11, 2014. It asked a different legal question: whether Wilson violated Brown’s federal civil rights under 18 U.S.C. § 242, which makes it a crime for someone acting under government authority to willfully deprive a person of constitutional rights.³

The bar was high. The government had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt both that Wilson used objectively unreasonable force and that he did so willfully, meaning he knew his actions were unlawful and chose to act anyway. Negligence or poor judgment would not suffice.⁴

In March 2015, the DOJ concluded that the evidence did not establish a prosecutable violation. Federal investigators found that witness accounts claiming Brown had his hands raised in clear surrender were “inconsistent with the physical evidence, are otherwise not credible because of internal inconsistencies, or are not credible because of inconsistencies with other credible evidence.” The forensic record and the witness statements the DOJ deemed credible corroborated Wilson’s account that he perceived a threat to his safety.¹

Wilson resigned from the Ferguson Police Department on November 29, 2014, five days after the grand jury decision. He wrote that he had been told his continued employment could put residents and other officers at risk.

The Wrongful Death Lawsuit and Settlement

In April 2015, Brown’s parents filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Ferguson, Officer Wilson, and former Police Chief Thomas Jackson. The complaint alleged that Wilson used excessive force and that the city fostered a police culture hostile to Black residents. The family sought compensatory and punitive damages without naming a dollar figure.⁵

The case settled in June 2017. Ferguson’s insurance carrier paid a reported $1.5 million. The court approved the agreement but ordered it sealed, so the split between the family’s recovery and attorney fees was never made public. The settlement does not amount to an admission of wrongdoing by any defendant, which is standard for negotiated civil resolutions.⁵

What the DOJ Found About the Ferguson Police Department

The shooting report cleared Wilson. A second, separate DOJ investigation looked at the department itself. The Civil Rights Division conducted a “pattern or practice” review of the Ferguson Police Department and its municipal court, examining whether their operations systematically violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.⁶

The numbers were striking. Between October 2012 and October 2014, Black residents accounted for 85% of vehicle stops while making up 67% of Ferguson’s population. Black drivers were searched at roughly twice the rate of white drivers and were 26% less likely to be found carrying contraband. Black drivers were more than twice as likely to be arrested during a traffic stop. Of the 460 people arrested solely for outstanding warrants during that period, 96% were Black.⁷

Every canine bite incident between January 2010 and September 2014 for which race data was available, all 14 of them, involved a Black person. One example: a police dog deployed on an unarmed 14-year-old hiding in a closet.⁷

The DOJ also described a municipal court functioning as a revenue engine rather than a justice system. By fiscal year 2013, fines and forfeitures made up roughly 20% of the city’s operating revenue, up from about 13% two years earlier. Police officials themselves described the warrant-issuance rate in internal emails as “staggering.” Black residents received multiple citations during single encounters at roughly double the rate of white residents, piling on fines and creating a cycle of warrants, arrests, and further fees for people who could not pay.⁷

The Consent Decree and Where It Stands Now

In April 2016, a federal court entered a consent decree requiring Ferguson to overhaul its police and court operations. The agreement resolved a DOJ lawsuit and imposed court-enforceable mandates covering nearly every aspect of policing and case adjudication in the city. Its key requirements prohibit law enforcement actions designed to generate revenue, reform the warrant system, eliminate secured money bonds, bar jailing anyone simply for inability to pay fines, and establish an amnesty program for cases and warrants initiated before 2014.⁶

Nearly ten years in, Ferguson is still working toward full compliance. An independent monitor, Christopher Akeley, oversees progress and reports to the federal court. At a February 2025 status hearing, the police department was roughly 88% staffed with sworn officers and had submitted updated policies on body-worn cameras, tasers, drones, and GPS fleet tracking. The municipal court had hit its major reform milestones, including integration with St. Louis County courts and completion of the amnesty program. The monitoring team was auditing use-of-force practices, body camera compliance, and officer accountability. The presiding judge said the city had begun working “very intentionally” toward completion and expressed hope that formal compliance findings could begin. Ferguson has not yet been released from the consent decree.⁸

The Legal Aftermath Beyond Ferguson

Missouri passed Senate Bill 5, effective January 2016, capping the percentage of a municipality’s general operating revenue that can come from minor traffic fines at 20%, down from a prior 30% limit. Municipalities within St. Louis County with populations over 950,000 face a stricter cap of 12.5%.⁹

At the federal level, the Death in Custody Reporting Act was reauthorized in 2014, the same year as Brown’s death, adding requirements that law enforcement agencies be identified when reporting deaths in their custody. States must collect this data quarterly from local agencies and submit it to the Bureau of Justice Assistance.¹⁰

A later effort, the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, was established by executive order in 2022 to centralize records of officer misconduct. The database launched in December 2023, but the authorizing executive order was revoked in January 2025 and the database was decommissioned.¹¹

The Michael Brown case produced no criminal conviction and no landmark court ruling. Its lasting legal significance lies in the DOJ pattern-or-practice report, which became a template for examining systemic police misconduct, in the consent decree model it reinforced, and in the revenue-driven policing practices it exposed in Ferguson and in municipalities well beyond it.

1
Department of Justice. DOJ Report on Shooting of Michael Brown
2
Municode Library. Ferguson Code of Ordinances – Article VII Pedestrians
3
GovInfo. 18 USC 242 – Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law
4
United States Department of Justice. Justice Department Announces Findings of Two Civil Rights Investigations in Ferguson, Missouri
5
United States District Court Eastern District of Missouri. Memorandum and Order on Petition for Approval of a Confidential Wrongful Death Settlement
6
United States Department of Justice. Justice Department and City of Ferguson, Missouri, Resolve Lawsuit with Agreement to Reform Ferguson Police Department and Municipal Court to Ensure Constitutional Policing
7
United States Department of Justice. Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department
8
U.S. District Court Eastern District of Missouri. USA v. City of Ferguson – Status Hearing Transcript, February 4, 2025
9
Missouri Senate. Senate Bill No. 5 – Conference Committee Substitute
10
Office of Justice Programs. Death in Custody Reporting Act Factsheet
11
Bureau of Justice Statistics. National Law Enforcement Accountability Database