Mississippians attend a rally for police chokehold victim Jonathan Sanders. Initial reports stated the officer used racial slurs before confronting Sanders.

A white police officer will not stand trial for the death of a black man in a small Mississippi town. That could be a headline from 1956; it’s also a headline for 2016, which means that’s nothing new. The small town is named after a Confederate general and the district attorney of the county is named after a notorious Southern racist. That, too, is nothing new. What is new is the manner in which the decision was made not to charge Stonewall Police Officer Kevin Herrington in the death of Jonathan Sanders. The July 2015 case drew attention—during a time of heightened attention to the deaths of unarmed black men by police—because witnesses initially said that Herrington had placed Sanders in a chokehold for what seemed like 20 minutes.

Clarke County District Attorney Bilbo Mitchell who convened the grand jury to look into Sander’s death allowed the members to hear from every witness in the case. Usually prosecutors only present evidence from their office or an investigator. Jurors not only heard from all the witnesses, including the medical examiner, but they were allowed to ask questions of the witnesses also. Some observers are calling the move unprecedented. The extraordinary show of transparency is undoubtedly linked to the increased scrutiny nationwide of both police shootings and the legal maneuvers that shield many law enforcement officers from justice.

In Mississippi, of all places.

Jonathan Sanders was riding in a horse and buggy on the night of July 8 in the small Mississippi town. Herrington, who was on traffic duty, said he observed Sanders’s buggy pull up next to a car and to him it appeared that drug activity was going on. Sanders, who had previously been incarcerated for selling cocaine, was not otherwise thought to be involved in drug activity. Herrington claims that once the two men saw him they decided to move to another location and Herrington followed them., initiating a traffic stop and questioned the man with whom Sanders was speaking. Herrington says he reasonably believed that Sanders was involved in drug activity and initiated a search of Sanders’s person, finding a small bag of cocaine, which he placed on top of the police vehicle. Herrington then stated that Sanders grabbed the bag and took off running, placing the bag in his mouth. Herrington gave chase and the two men began to struggle when, according to Herrington, Sanders attempted to grab Herrington’s gun. That’s when Herrington says he put Sanders in a headlock in order to restrain him.

According to the medical examiner’s report, Sanders had a large amount of cocaine in his system that contributed to his death.

The grand jury found that Herrington’s use of force was not excessive. The findings from the jury will be turned over to the FBI for their examination.