Jury foreman in Slager murder trial says jury was divided

When Walter Scott, a 50-year-old black man, was shot and killed by a white police officer in SC last year after being pulled over for a broken taillight and taking off on foot, it became another flash point in the long national debate over policing, police brutality, and the killing of black men by the cops.

Earlier on Monday, the judge declared a mistrial in the case after the jury announced it could not reach a unanimous verdict in the case. The jury began deliberating on Wednesday.

A SC judge declared a mistrial on Monday after jurors weighing a murder charge against a white former SC police officer who shot and killed a black motorist past year said they were deadlocked. The South Carolina man who used his phone to record a video of Slager fatally shooting Scott said that another officer who arrived on the scene ordered him to stop recording.

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.

Witherspoon, who is black, had no doubt Slager was guilty of murder, but the mistrial did not come as a surprise.

Such clashes would be unlikely under Sessions, who would tone down the activist element of the Obama Justice Department, say some experts. What if I wasn’t there? None of us really have an understanding of law.

He added: “It’s at this point that people are truly exasperated and say, ‘Do we really have anything that can seriously be called the administration of criminal justice?’ Can we reach people? But it’s a little bit disappointing”. She did not respond when reporters asked if she wanted to comment.

He is also now looking at federal charges in connection with the death of Walter Scott.

Sanders, the first witness in Roof’s death penalty trial, fought back tears as she recalled sheltering her granddaughter under a table and telling her to play dead.

As Slager was checking his information, Scott got out of the vehicle, but after being asked to remain in the auto, he got back in.

The group could be heard chanting,”We’re doing this for Walter Scott”.

“I knew I was in trouble”, Slager testified. Some of the most high-profile recent incidents in which police officers were not convicted-or often even indicted-in the killings of minority men have included video evidence.

“It’s a good thing that people are paying a lot of attention to this and that they are shocked”, he said. Slager has said he acted out of “total fear”. He said the officer was holding onto Scott but Scott was able to break away. The cop could also have let Scott get away, since there was no reason to believe that he would endanger the public, as his only crime was driving with a broken taillight. “[The officer] shoot the man running from him. And he shoot until he gets on the ground”.

Investigators determined that Slager was about 17 feet from Scott when he shot him.