12-02-2016, 06:55 PM
Ah man, I was afraid of this. There is one hold-out on the Slager jury who reportedly can't vote 'guilty' (presumably on the lesser charge of manslaughter even).
The judge told the jury to go back and try again to reach a unanimous verdict. I hope they do.
It seems so difficult for juries to convict cops, even with clear video evidence to support the prosecutor's charges and weak 'self defense' claims by the accused. (The outrageous acquittals of the officers in the Kelly Thomas case sadden me to this day.)
Convicting Slager of at least manslaughter should be a no brainer, in my opinion. But if the jury deadlocks, a mistrial will be called and Slager will be retried by the State of South Carolina. I don't know if that would happen before or after his federal trial for civil rights violations.
The judge told the jury to go back and try again to reach a unanimous verdict. I hope they do.
It seems so difficult for juries to convict cops, even with clear video evidence to support the prosecutor's charges and weak 'self defense' claims by the accused. (The outrageous acquittals of the officers in the Kelly Thomas case sadden me to this day.)
Convicting Slager of at least manslaughter should be a no brainer, in my opinion. But if the jury deadlocks, a mistrial will be called and Slager will be retried by the State of South Carolina. I don't know if that would happen before or after his federal trial for civil rights violations.