Following mistrial, views vary on how Slager case will conclude

Circuit Judge Clifton Newman announced the mistrial after a jury said on Monday that it was unable to reach a unanimous agreement on a verdict for Michael Slager, the police officer who shot and killed Walter Scott.

But after reviewing evidence, including cellphone video of the shooting, Montgomery said that he thought the 35-year-old Slager was guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Walter Scott.

Slager is accused of murder for shooting Walter Scott multiple times as he ran away from the officer in 2015, after a routine traffic stop.

Of all possible outcomes in this case, a null result was among the most likely. Time after time after time, they were told: There’s not enough evidence to prove that the officer acted criminally. Of course. Humiliated to know that Gasser could have emboldened other people to shoot black men with impunity?

“God is my strength, and I know without doubt he is a just God and injustice will not prevail”, Scott’s mother, Judy, told reporters later. But Slager also faces federal civil rights charges in the case, for which he was indicted last May.

The video shows Slager walking back to where the struggle had taken place, picking up his taser, then walking back and dropping it next to Scott’s body. The former officer will remain free on bail through the holidays.

“Every bit of [the Scott case] is fundamental to the basic rule of law, which is the principle that every person, no matter their race, is treated the same by the police and the justice system”, says Matthew Miller, the former spokesman for Attorney General Eric Holder.

Slager pulled black motorist Walter Scott over for a broken taillight.

The video, courageously shot by barber Feidin Santana on his phone as he walked to work, horrified the nation.

At least one juror was convinced, because the lone holdout sent a note to the judge saying that he didn’t want to see Slager not held accountable, but felt that he couldn’t vote to convict. “I don’t think questions of fact were the issues for this jury”.

“It’s not a loss, but also it’s not a victory for justice”, he said.

Randall Kennedy, a black Harvard University law professor and author of several books on race relations, had difficulty reconciling the law with the mistrial, which he called “frightening”.

“The mayor of Charleston, community leaders and South Carolina’s governor are urging a calm response to that ruling”, Lauer said. A passerby captured what appeared to be a murder on his mobile phone camera, thought about erasing it for fear of his own safety, but made a decision to come forward after details of the video contradicted the police report that the officer in the case filed. “The state of SC said the goal is unanimity, while other states have said that’s not the goal, and that we shouldn’t try to force square pegs into round holes”. Instead of conviction or acquittal, Michael Slager got a mistrial. “Are people even persuadable?”

Slager had pleaded not guilty to murder. It’s an outcome the 54-year-old SC native has come to expect. Family members have said he may have run because he was anxious about going to jail because he was $18,000 behind on child support. I work with the police officers a lot, and majority are phenomenal. I don’t look at them any differently, I don’t condemn them for not getting on board with me, but that’s just their take on it, and I respect them even more for not being easily swayed.

Be it black, white, yellow or brown, we all deserve to live without being murdered on the street. “We’re going to believe in peaceful protests, because it didn’t turn out the way we feel, but we feel our voices need to be heard”. “What will really be bad is when something like this happens, and people are not shocked”. Yesterday a jury in SC said it could not reach a verdict.

Nettles, the former SC prosecutor, said that while civil rights prosecutions entail a high legal threshold, the federal trial here involves “a much more objective case” than the state trial.

Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts.