Judge refuses to delay Dylann Roof’s trial

“We hope the federal and state courts will coordinate efforts regarding any future trial dates but we stand ready whenever the court calls”. Roof’s lawyers said they worry jurors in their case may feel pressure from the community to make up for what some saw as injustice in Slager’s case.

Slager shot and killed Walter Scott, 50, after an April 4, 2015, traffic stop. After Scott fled the auto, video filmed by a bystander shows Officer Slager fatally shooting Scott in the back from more than 17 feet away. When asked by reporters afterward if he had anything to say to the Slager family, he said he felt sorry for Slager’s toddler son, but that feeling was outweighed by the anguish his own family’s loss, noting that Slager would be with his family for Christmas.

Too many times to count between Reconstruction and the civil rights era, white defendants accused of crimes that left a black person cheated, abused, or dead, were acquitted by all-white juries whose members could not see past race in assessing the evidence put before them.

Scott’s death was one of a number of killings previous year that provoked nationwide protests and debates about law enforcement’s use of lethal force, particularly in cases involving black Americans.

The mistrial came just a few hours after Circuit Judge Clifton Newman had ordered jurors to continue deliberating. For the moment, he will walk free, reports CNN. Still, he said, he’s emboldened because, before the trial, observers expressed doubt the proceedings would be fair, given the jury makeup. “So at some point, we’re going to have to stop those of us that raise the questions and start answering the questions on how do you get equal protection under the law?” The hung jury was likely to fuel fresh debate about racial bias in law enforcement and the US justice system. The Scott family has been destroyed by this.

“Today I’m not sad”, said Judy Scott Walter Scott’s mother. The black man. he just tried to get away from the Taser that I was hearing.

According to The Post and Courier, it is unclear whether the prosecutors will seek charges against Slager, who still faces a federal civil rights case that could lead to life imprisonment.

Prosecutors said they would look for another trial for Mr. Slager, who was terminated after the shooting, and the Scott family communicated certainty that he would at last be indicted.

“I’m always for the cop but not in a case like this one”, said another.

A panel of one black and 11 white jurors – who had seemed close to a verdict to convict Friday, with apparently only one holdout – said Monday they were unable to reach a unanimous decision after deliberating more than 22 hours over four days.

Wilson thanked jurors for their service, saying even though she is disappointed she respects their decision.

“Every week an unarmed black man somewhere in America is shot by a policeman and it’s beginning to become a serious problem”, Johnson said Tuesday morning.