Now that the Boulder Police Department has requested that the district attorney convene a grand jury in the JonBenét Ramsey investigation, it is time to dispel some the "myths" and conventional wisdom that have been passing for serious analysis of this case.

Myth #1: The police have hopelessly bungled the evidence in the case, making a solution to JonBenét's murder nearly impossible.

Wrong. Domestic homicides are almost never solved with forensic evidence. The reason is quite simple. The suspects usually live at the scene of the crime and any forensic evidence discovered there invariably has an "innocent" explanation. The public is woefully misinformed with respect to the true value of forensic evidence in identifying suspects in a crime. A recent study in the Journal of Forensic Sciences noted that "crime scene evidence ... has no intrinsic ability to identify an offender who is otherwise unknown." Most crime scenes, moreover, are never as pristine or well-kept as they should be, yet convictions result every day.

Myth #2: There is not enough "hard" evidence to identify the real culprit(s), thereby making it impossible to arrest and charge anyone for the murder of JonBenét.

Wrong again. The ransom note is the only forensic evidence of the true identity of the culprit(s) sufficient to lead to an arrest and conviction in this case. Examining mud prints, knots, masking tape, and nylon cords is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Either the police can identify the ransom note writer or they can't. If they can't, then everyone can go home now. This case can't be solved in a way that can realistically lead to a conviction "beyond reasonable doubt." Most domestic homicides never have a ransom note or nearly as much evidence as the police now possess. The police know who the ransom note writer is, and they can prove it.

Myth #3: The police have asked the district attorney to convene a grand jury because there isn't enough evidence.

Complete nonsense. The source of almost all the friction and ill-will between the police and Alex Hunter is the growing suspicion that the district attorney is not eager to file a case against the politically powerful Haddon and his client John Ramsey. Anyone who doubts this has only to read Fleet White's letter calling for the removal of Alex Hunter. It is clear from White's letter that he believes, based on his personal experiences dealing with both the police and the district attorney, that it is Alex Hunter, and not Tom Koby, who doesn't want a solution to this crime. The reason the police have requested a grand jury is to force Alex Hunter to present the evidence they have gathered before a panel of Boulder citizens who will have no hesitation whatsoever in returning an indictment. Anyone sophisticated enough to know the law will realize that the Ramseys can't be compelled to give testimony and that the evidence of 11 year-old Burke is almost useless. The only practical purpose in convening a grand jury is to remove the decision to charge someone for the murder of JonBenét from the district attorney and put it in the hands of less politically sensitive people.

Myth #4: Identifying the ransom note writer still doesn't mean the district attorney can get a murder conviction.

This is not only wrong, it is the closest thing to a "Big Lie" being perpetrated by the district attorney's office. This "Whopper" goes something like this: Even if we know the ransom note writer, how can a jury convict them of a murder without more evidence of their physically participating in the actual killing of JonBenét? Simple. Colorado's felony murder statute makes anyone participating in such dangerous crimes as kidnapping equally responsible for any murder resulting from such activity. Much like the get-away-driver to a bank robbery where a guard is killed (who is later found guilty of murder despite not even being in the bank during the robbery and murder) the JonBenét ransom note writer can be charged with first-degree murder even if the police can't prove the writer actually killed JonBenét. Yet Alex Hunter persists in naively stating that even if the ransom note writer were identified and arrested and jailed, they would be immediately eligible for bail. This is also not true because felony murder is not a bailable offense in Colorado. The ransom note writer would have to sit in jail until they went to trial or made a deal to reveal JonBenét's murderer to the district attorney.

Myth #5: This case will never be solved.