Jury foreman: 5 jurors were undecided on Slager verdict

These include the murders of Tamir Rice and Eric Garner.

The killing took place on April 4, 2015, in the midst of a national conversation about police brutality and the role race plays in determining when deadly force is meted out against citizens. Voices on both sides demanded accountability, and the city of North Charleston moved swiftly. In a matter of days, Slager was sacked and charged with murder. By June, he was indicted on that and a charge of voluntary manslaughter.

“We believe in peaceful protests”, Scott’s brother Anthony Scott told reporters outside the courthouse.

On Monday, the jury made an announcement.

Jurors first alerted the judge that they were deadlocked on Friday.

“This whole notion that the Department of Justice is going to dismiss this, there’s no basis for saying that”, said Bill Nettles, who stepped down in June after six years as the US attorney in SC. By Monday afternoon, not much had changed. We will try Michael Slager again.

Facebook commenters also came out against the officer, saying things like, “he did not need to shoot that man in the back, as many times as he did, while he was running away;” “I certainly support the police but this needs to be in jail;” and “It’s rare that I don’t side with the police but this is one of those times”. Would it reject the idea that wearing a badge grants nearly total impunity for any action? The outcome stung many African-Americans and others. The fact that neither was convicted is the latest evidence that the system as it now exists does not reliably punish cops for even egregious killings.

Slager has reportedly been emotional and regretful during the trial.

But a SC jury was unable to agree on a verdict in one of the nation’s ghastliest police shootings, with a lone holdout forcing a mistrial. This includes a level of leeway that doesn’t exist in any other criminal investigation. SC requires an unanimous verdict in criminal trials. And they exist within a web of broad relationships that make accountability even more hard. “They respect my views, I respect their views”. Beyond the system itself, there are larger cultural attitudes toward police that make accountability hard.

SHAPIRO: And also, legally speaking, there are more trials to come. That juror wrote the judge that he could not “in good conscience” vote for guilty. In the ongoing debate about policing, defenders of the status quo frequently point out, correctly, that patrolling America’s streets is a tremendously hard job-one that puts all who perform it in frequent contact with risky criminals, risking injury or death while trying to protect public safety. “I still can not, without a reasonable doubt, convict the defendant”, the juror wrote. Until then, we will continue to pray for our community, for justice, for the family and friends of Walter Scott, and for all those whose lives have been touched by this bad tragedy.

“I think the focus of the defense on re-trial is going to be on trying to introduce that doubt in the jury’s mind of is there anything possible to explain the police officer’s actions”. But if bystander video footage isn’t enough to convict officers who murder unarmed citizens on camera, what will be enough?

“I screamed he had a gun”, she said.

It’s been long overdue that Blacks become serious about “rolling up our sleeves and moving forward to a new reality for ourselves” to prevent another generation from going through the same experiences, said Mr. Muhammad.

“While I can not overstate our disappointment that this case was not resolved, I commend those who sacrificed so much time, energy and effort to serve on this jury”, Wilson said in a statement. None of us really have an understanding of law.

A date has yet to be set for Slager’s case to be retried by the state.

Even with a demographically favorable jury, at the outset of the trial, it was tough to divine how Slager’s attorneys could push back against such a seemingly damning video. Like the holdout jurist, some people are unable to let go of their unflinching and uncritical belief that law enforcement is always right. This issue concerns the value of a human life. Better police training and procedures factor into that answer.