In another case involving police use of deadly force, a jury in Tulsa, Oklahoma has found a police officer not guilty of Manslaughter after nine hours of deliberation. There is an outcry from clergy members and the family of Terrence Crutcher claiming that the case was a trial of Mr. Crutcher rather than Police Officer […]
Category Archives: Officers in Court
What happens to an officer after the incident — grand juries, criminal trials, qualified immunity and civil suits. Most prosecutions of police fail, and the reasons start with the charges, not the jury.
Charleston case reaches resolution
Michael Slager, the former North Charleston, South Carolina police officer who shot and killed Walter Scott after a traffic stop, entered into a plea agreement in Federal Court settling both the Federal and State criminal charges. The Times offered this analysis in a May 2 article, “The plea agreement, reached nearly five months after a […]
Why prosecutions of cops almost always fail
Prosecutors and District Attorneys are elected by the voters while State’s Attorneys are generally appointed by the Governor of the State. The commonality is that their livelihood hinges on their political support. The result is that they literally throw cops “under the bus” to appease a segment of the community who are screaming for blood. […]