http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... al-verdictMistrial Appears Likely in Murder Trial of South Carolina Cop Who Killed a Fleeing, Unarmed Suspect
It appears likely that Judge Clifton Newman will be compelled to declare a mistrial in the racially charged South Carolina murder trial of former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager, who fatally shot an unarmed man who had fled from an April 2015 traffic stop. Late Friday afternoon, a lone juror sent a letter to the judge saying that he or she could not, in good conscience, vote to convict Slager of murder or manslaughter. The judge sent word asking the jurors to clarify whether that meant they were hopelessly deadlocked. The jurors responded that they were, but the prosecutor requested that the jurors receive further instruction, if need be, and the jurors expressed a willingness to deliberate further. In the meantime, the judge has sent jurors home for the weekend.
A viral bystander video showed Slager, who is white, shooting 50-year-old Walter Scott, who is black, multiple times from behind. Posted online soon after the incident, the video thrust the Charleston area into the national debate on race and the use of deadly force by police.
What the video didn't show is the preceding tussle during which, Slager testified, Scott had defied his orders and tried to grab the Taser he was deploying. After Scott broke free and ran away, Slager took aim and fired. Slager said he was in a state of "total fear" and believed Scott remained a threat to him, even though he was running away.
Earlier on Friday, the jurors told Newman they were deadlocked in their attempt to reach a verdict, and the judge—who had given them the option of a lesser verdict of manslaughter—sent them back to try again. Over two days of deliberations, the jury twice asked the judge for assistance. They asked for transcripts of Slager's courtroom testimony and that of the officer who interviewed Slager after the shooting. They also asked Newman to clarify the legal distinction between "fear" and "passion." The judge responded that they would have to make that determination themselves.
Many observers have taken note of the racial imbalance of the jury: six white men, five white women, and one black man. No matter which way it goes, the verdict has to be unanimous. A jury foreman's note that accompanied the letter from the holdout juror noted there was only one juror who "had issues" with convicting the officer.
A hung jury would probably be good news for Slager and his defense team. The prosecutor, 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, would have to decide whether to pursue a new trial and on what charge. She announced in court that she would first want to interview jurors to gather insights before making further decisions on resolving the case. It's also possible Slager could head off a second trial by pleading to a lesser charge in exchange for a short prison stint—a manslaughter sentence in South Carolina ranges from two to thirty years without parole. But involuntary manslaughter, for instance, carries a maximum sentence of five years.
There are some cases where video tape in incidents like this can on their face look damning, but are actually inconclusive in some way...(important things aren't seen, there's a bad angle, some critical event isn't included, etc.)
This isn't one of them...
Regardless of the earlier "tussle" the video clearly shows the cop firing eight times in the back of an unarmed man running away from him full tilt...(By the time he fires the final shot, the guy looks to be a good 40 feet from the officer) There's no way in hell he could have been "in fear of his life"...
Then he proceeds to handcuff the dying/dead man (no effort at all to summon any kind of medical aid) and then to top it all off, he walks all the way back to where he left the tazer, and then drops it near the victim's body in a blatant attempt to make it appear that the taser tussle and shooting occurred contemporaneously with each other, (which is clearly not the case)
In fact this attempt was so blatant that the other officer who had arrived on the scene makes him pick up the tazer...(It was also a stupid attempt as well, since the autopsy and the forensics would have revealed that the shots were fired from a much greater distance...)
All of this is captured on the video:
It is utterly bewildering to me how even one person viewing this video could feel that they have a "reasonable doubt" that the cop was acting out of a fear for his life. It just defies all commonsense...
Either Slager has got one helluva lawyer to be able to persuade even one person to buy that, or the prosecutors really screwed the pooch in the jury selection process...
I'm usually reluctant to post stories about this sort of thing, because they inevitably result in another round of generalized (and mostly unsupported) cop bashing from some folks, but this one struck me as so egregious and outrageous that I wanted to comment on it...
