After this week’s acquittal in Woodyard, Weiser mischaracterized Polis’s order of him as one “to investigate and hold accountable those whose actions led to the death of Elijah McClain….”

Again, that is not accurate.

“Hold accountable” is an incredibly broad term, independent of the ethical standards for prosecutors and untethered to the real and important limitations imposed by Polis’s order – and the two amending orders after it, namely: to “prosecute potential criminal activity,” but only “if the evidence permits.”

Despite pledging to be “guided by the facts,” Weiser paid for new expert opinions about existing facts. Those opinions were presented to both juries, and appear to have been rejected by each of them.

Having lost every lead charge he has pursued thus far, Weiser followed Woodyard’s acquittal by doubling down on his willingness to pursue goals not delegated to him by Polis, stating “We (the royal ‘we’?) remain undeterred in our pursuit of accountability and justice for Elijah McClain and his family and friends.” With the courtroom failures so far, any responsible prosecutor would take a pause to determine if they should be deterred by the juries’ verdicts.

Weiser distanced himself from the responsibility for the decision to prosecute these weak cases by saying he did so “to honor the grand jury’s decision,” as if his obligation is to do their bidding, instead of exercising independent prosecutorial discretion. Weiser had no trouble dismissing the grand jury’s decision to indict the defendants with counts of “crime of violence.”

Prosecutors do not – cannot – hide behind a grand jury indictment issued on the low standard of “probable cause” as the justification to present an uncertain case to a jury commanded to apply the highest legal standard – “beyond a reasonable doubt” – to paid-for evidence and a questionable theory of guilt.

The rule of law demands more. Justice cannot be obtained with less.

But there are two more cases, this time against the paramedics. Twice, Weiser’s team unsuccessfully argued to separate juries that the paramedics’ administration of the lethal dose of ketamine was the fault of the officers who misled the paramedics by failing to inform them of McClain’s condition. Weiser’s team will now pirouette and argue the opposite – that the paramedics are at fault for killing McClain by failing to conduct their own independent assessment of him before administering ketamine. Ironically – and predictably – this is the same argument that appears to have swayed the juries in the first two trials.

But the glaring issue unaddressed by Weiser in prosecuting the paramedics is this: they appeared to have engaged in medical malpractice. Doctors kill patients all the time. Deaths caused by medical mistakes is the third leading cause of death, killing more than 250,000 Americans per year. Those doctors are not criminally prosecuted for killing their patients. But here, Weiser is trying to convict paramedics of felonies with attached prison time for similar conduct.

It does not feel right. This is beginning to look less like a search for the truth, than it is a search for convictions. Elijah McClain deserved more than he got on the street that night, and more then he has gotten in court over the four years since.

George Brauchler is the former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District. He also is an Owens Early Criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute. He hosts “The George Brauchler Show” on 710KNUS Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Follow him on Twitter: @GeorgeBrauchler.