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A painful but unsurprising verdict in South Carolina

By Brian E. Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Dec 7, 2016 - 2:19:40 PM

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(L) Ex-police officer Michael Slager in court for the case of the fatal shooting of Walter Scott. (R) Walter Scott was fatally shot in the back by a North Charleston Police Officer.
COLUMBIA, S.C.—A mistrial was declared in the state murder case of Michael Slager, the White former North Charleston police officer accused of killing Walter Scott, an unarmed Black motorist stopped for a broken tail light in April 2015.

The jury was in deliberation since closing arguments Nov. 30. The mistrial was declared Dec. 5.

Reactions to the outcome showed it wasn’t unexpected, even with video of Mr. Scott running away from the officer that was seen worldwide on the internet.

Initially 11 jurors voted guilty with one holdout, a White male creating a deadlock against an outright conviction. Defense lawyers had argued Off. Slager didn’t know if Mr. Scott was going to turn and attack him—despite the officer having a weapon and Mr. Scott having nothing. There was also no sign Mr. Scott ever turned toward the officer while being shot in the back.

“I’m not surprised,” said Charleston community organizer Thomas Ravenell. “A lone holdout and my honest opinion … I think this guy was a White racist and his mind was made up.”

Mr. Ravenell believes the juror was determined, if chosen for the jury, he was not going to convict the ex-cop regardless of the evidence. 

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Michael Thomas Slager shooting unarmed man Walter Scott.

At one point in a letter to Judge Clifton Newman, the single juror wrote, “I cannot in good conscious consider a guilty verdict” against the ex-officer who was filmed on a witnesses’ camera phone calmly squeezing off rounds of bullets, shooting Mr. Scott five times in his back. The video showed Mr. Scott, 50, running away from the ex-cop and the video was reviewed several times over the course of the trial by jurors. The video showed there was a considerable distance between the two men.

This is the latest travesty of justice against people of color around the country and in Charleston, S.C., a city on edge with a long history of racial disparity and injustices, observers said.

“This shows us as we have heard from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan—with trials like this—that  America’s justice system or injustice system is on trial as well,” said Student Minister DeAndre Muhammad, the Charleston Representative of the Nation of Islam.

The outcome proves again that the system is “unfit” to render justice, he added. “We have to be convinced now, as a people, that we have to turn inward,” the Muslim student minister continued.

Trust is broken again and the masses of Black people are once again disappointed in a system that protects the perpetrators of injustice, he said.

“This is another notch in the belt for them,” Mr. Muhammad said. “Our prayers and our thoughts go out to the Scott family. … I pledged our support and our backing of the family, letting them know that God is ultimately with them.” 

Speaking after the verdict, Anthony Scott, Mr. Scott’s older brother called for peaceful protests.

“We’re not going to tear up this city,” he said. “We’re going to keep it just the way it is. 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.”

The Washington Post quoted Chris Stewart, an attorney for the Scott family saying the outcome is “a missed opportunity for justice” and that the fight was far from over, noting that Mr. Slager faces federal charges as well as a retrial.

“He may have delayed justice, but he did not escape it,” Attorney Stewart said.

Scarlett A. Wilson, the prosecutor for Charleston County, said in a statement that her office fully intended to put Mr. Slager on trial once more.

“We will try Michael Slager again,” she said. “We hope the federal and state courts will coordinate efforts regarding any future trial dates but we stand ready whenever the court calls.”

A conviction would have been significant, experts say, because police are not often found guilty of murder or manslaughter. The killing of Mr. Scott is part of a national problem with police shootings of Black and Brown people.

In a recent interview with The Final Call, on police crime and accountability, Philip M. Stinson, an associate professor with the Criminal Justice Program at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, pointed out a small fraction of police are charged criminally in comparison to shootings on the streets. The “overwhelming majority” of the cases are judged as justifiable homicide on the part of the cop, he said.

“I do think that the press is paying more attention (and) prosecutors realize they are being watched and people are demanding transparency and accountability,” Mr. Stinson said. “But the fact of the matter is that over a thousand times a year, on average—the best estimate we have—is that police officers shoot and kill somebody in this country,” he shared. However his research, which goes back to 2005, found only 73 officers were charged with murder or manslaughter, according to Mr. Stinson. On manslaughter and murder, he said, since January 2005, fewer than 80 police officers, deputy sheriffs or state troopers across the country have been arrested and charged. Out of 73 officers, 24 were convicted which is less than one third.

“It’s very difficult to get a conviction,” Mr. Stinson explained. “In those 24 cases where there’s been a conviction … twelve of those convictions were by guilty plea and twelve by jury trial … no convictions by bench trial,” Mr. Stinson told The Final Call.

There were 11 Whites and one Black on the Slager jury. “To be honest, I’m surprised that we only had one hold out,” said Shakem Akhet, an activist who has been in the courtroom from day one of the trial.

On Dec. 2 Judge Clifton Newman divulged that the juror stated, “I cannot and will not change my mind” in a letter. Defense attorneys immediately called for a mistrial, which the judge rejected, instructing jurors to keep deliberating. Meanwhile the state prosecutor asked whether it was a hung jury or a question of whether more clarification on issues and laws was needed.

Mr. Akhet said Judge Newman—who is also Black—strongly pushed for a decisive conclusion rather than mistrial which would require the process to begin again.

“That brother is kind of a tough cookie,” said Mr. Akhet about Judge Newman. “Everybody in their right mind knows this is some bullsh--.”  The judge could have easily called a mistrial but chose to keep sending the jurors back into deliberation. “The judge saw through it,” Mr. Akhet added, referring to the one juror holding out while 11 were ready to convict.

Since the time of the shooting and during the weeks of Mr. Slager’s trial, Blacks in Charleston expressed doubt justice would be meted out to Mr. Slager.

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.  

Mr. Slager was facing 30 years to life if convicted and still faces federal charges in the coming year related to the Scott killing.