Mistrial in Murder Case Against Cop Who Fatally Shot Walter Scott

The footage sparked national outrage, and Slager was sacked from the force and charged with murder days after it was released.

Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, who prosecuted the case, said there will be retrial.

While he said he would have accepted a guilty verdict on the lesser manslaughter charge, he remains convinced of what happened to his brother.

Slager is scheduled to go on trial early next year on federal charges, including civil rights offenses, related to the shooting.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg and other community leaders urged calm as the trial began six weeks ago.

Former police officer Michael Slager took the stand in his own defense for the murder of Walter Scott.

The mistrial was declared today after Judge Clifton Newman gave jurors multiple chances to reach a verdict when they indicated Friday they may be unable to come do a unanimous decision.

Prosecutors as well as attorneys for Slager, also thanked the jurors for their effort in the case.

Slager had pulled Scott over for a broken brake light.

Much of the trial focused on a single piece of evidence: a bystander’s video of the incident that captured a portion of the struggle, Scott’s attempt to flee and Slager firing eight shots at the suspect, five of them hitting their mark.

Slager testified he did this because police are trained to account for their weapons, which doesn’t really explain why he would drop it on the ground, but that was apparently enough for that one juror to not convict him. And yet, for at least one person on the jury, it did, and that was enough to prevent Slager from being convicted. The jury provided the court a note to that effect on Monday morning.

The definition of justice has become so skewed in America that even when a retreating man is shot four times in the back by a police officer, a jury of his peers can not decisively conclude that what the officer did was not self defense, but cold-blooded murder.

Scott’s family also called for peaceful protests. “It’s just one juror that has the issues”, the note said.

Jurors have resumed deliberations in the Michael Slager murder trial in SC.

A judge declared a mistrial this Monday afternoon in the fatal shooting of Walter Scott, at the hands of former police officer Michael Slager.

Montgomery was the only black juror on an otherwise all-white panel.

The jury foreperson told the judge Friday that a unanimous verdict was possible with more time and clarification of the difference between murder and voluntary manslaughter – indicating that any conviction would probably have been for the latter charge.

Former patrolman Michael Slager was charged with murder over the shooting of 50-year-old Walter Scott on April 4 2015.