Family wants new trial after officer’s mistrial
Police officers, some seen grasping batons on video, stopped the protesters at one point from entering a covered transit center.
Police Chief Kerr Putney was scheduled to hold a news conference Saturday. He was one of three jurors interviewed Saturday, a day after a mistrial was declared. Kerrick’s trial, while packing the courthouse, has drawn little outside attention.
Prosecutors said the 29-year-old Kerrick used deadly force when he shot and killed Ferrell in September 2013.
Kerrick’s attorneys sought to demonize Ferrell, said Wilson – pointing out he’d had a few beers, smoked some marijuana before crashing his vehicle the night of the shooting and noting that he wasn’t able to stay in college. A woman inside called 911 to report a possible break-in, and Kerrick and two other officers responded.
Protests resumed hours later when dozens gathered Friday night to protest near Charlotte’s minor league baseball stadium as a game was in progress. Several shouted “No justice, no peace” at members of Kerrick’s family as they left the courthouse.
The case was one in every of a number of in recent times that raised questions on police use of lethal drive towards black males.
Chestnut said certain pieces of evidence were not presented and said he had concerns with some of the framing of the case, including the fact that the defense referred to Ferrell throughout as “the suspect”, when in fact he had just experienced a vehicle wreck and was not armed. A source told WBTV the final 8-4 vote on Friday leaned in favor of a “Not Guilty” verdict.
A North Carolina jury has deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial in the case of a white police officer charged with voluntary manslaughter in the death of an unarmed black man. After the foreperson and jurors agreed that it would not, the state urged the judge to ask them to continue deliberations.
“I feel bad that as a jury we could not come together one way or the other for the families”, said the juror, who asked to remain anonymous.
“It became, not what he did, or what they did to him, but more, what he didn’t do, what he should have known what to do, so that the police would not have had to beat him silly or shoot him”, Wilson said.
They agreed to keep it out of their decision-making, said Bruce Raffe, the foreman. The second vote, taken Thursday, was 8-4, and that was the same outcome when the jury voted again prior to entering the courtroom. Kerrick’s attorneys have argued that Ferrell was moving quickly in the officer’s direction. Protests also followed the deaths of two unarmed black men after encounters with police earlier this year in Baltimore and South Carolina. He fired 12 shots, hitting Ferrell 10 times.
Police training expert Dave Cloutier testified that Kerrick’s decision to shoot Ferrell was consistent with the department’s training.