(NEWSER) – South Carolina Circuit Judge Clifton Newman declared a mistrial after a jury said it could not reach a verdict after four days of deliberation in the murder trial of a white police officer charged in the shooting death of an unarmed black motorist, reports the AP. Former patrolman Michael Slager was charged with murder in the April 2015 death of 50-year-old Walter Scott. The judge had said the jury could also consider a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. Cellphone video showing taken by a bystander that showed Scott being shot in the back shocked the country, inflaming the national debate about how blacks are treated by police. After the video went public, Slager was fired and charged with murder. Scott’s family called for peace in North Charleston, calls for calm believed to have helped prevent the violence that erupted elsewhere when black men were killed by law enforcement.
Scott was pulled for a broken taillight and then fled his 1990 Mercedes, running into a vacant lot. Family said he may have run because he was worried about going to jail because he was $18,000 behind on child support. The prosecution argued that the 35-year-old Slager let his sense of authority get the better of him. The defense maintained that the two men wrestled on the ground, that Scott got control of Slager’s stun gun and pointed it at the officer before the shooting. The defense also contended there was no way Slager could tell if Scott was armed.
I would be pissed if this happened in my county or to someone I knew.
“Last year, North Charleston reached a $6.5 million civil settlement with Scott’s family. Slager faces trial next year on federal charges of depriving Scott of his civil rights.”
“Civil Rights.”
“Social Justice.”
Slager’s (like Zimmerman’s) public lynching
will never satify these monsters.
Attention Christmas shoppers:
100% off sales in South Carolina this weekend.
CTH(again) did a fantastic job-they put together a time line along with what imagery was available of the shooting. They also did a very comprehensive analysis of the legal end.
The state initially sought a murder conviction, which was preposterous, and had to add a second choice of manslaughter to the jury.
The judge made so many errors that by the end of the second day of deliberation, no matter what verdict was reached, it was headed for mistrial.
This is tough especially from the video but the officer did not just wantonly shoot this man the back. His life is fucked and the other man, because of his own actions, is dead.
So, the guy stiffs his own children to the tune of twenty thousand dollars, panics and runs because he may be called to account because of his own actions.
Now the poor cop who was put in that position to decide if he was running just to get away or running because he was a really bad guy out on a murder spree.
I think there should be another tool in the police toolbox
Tranquilizer darts.
Dart the fooker just like a bear.
Don’t run from a cop, some are fucking nuts
@andress
Piss off
For those who haven’t been following this case and only know it from MSM reports – this was more gas lighting by the media and race hustlers. See documentary “Frame 394” where Toronto man thought he would demonstrate this was an out and out killing of an innocent man by a white cop and instead showed that the tape we’ve all seen of the shooting supports the cop’s claim that the perp stole and was using the cop’s taser. Justified shooting
https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2016/05/14/frame-394/
Damn it! It used to be legal to shoot an fleeing suspect in the back! When criminals knew that, they didn’t run away. That’s why the cliche “Stop! or I’ll Shoot!” used to work; If I don’t stop running, that flatfoot will shoot me in the back. There’s even a scene in “It’s a Wonderful Life” where the cop tries to shoot a fleeing George Bailey in the back.