After mistrial, slain SC man’s family still expects justice

SHAPIRO: How do you keep it from getting you down when you’ve represented so many clients in similar circumstances and so rarely seen a conviction come out of it?

Slager shot and killed Walter Scott, 50, after an April 4, 2015, traffic stop. Their calls for calm are believed to have helped prevent the kind of violence that erupted elsewhere when black men were killed in encounters with law enforcement.

His brother, Anthony, said, “We’re not going to tear up this city”.

Local prosecutors also charged Slager with murder and manslaughter, and on Monday, a mistrial was declared after the jury said it couldn’t reach a verdict.

“The Slager mistrial, declared less than 48 hours before the scheduled start of the trial in this case, is highly likely to create undue pressure on the jury to compensate for the judicial system’s apparent failure to punish Mr. Slager by imposing a harsher punishment here”, the wrote. This was a grave and shocking miscarriage of justice.

Scott could have been guilty of a hundred crimes and still should have gone through the justice system. After the racially mixed jury determines Roof’s guilt, the federal trial will move to the penalty phase, where Roof plans to act as his own lawyer to apparently fight for his life.

“I urge South Carolinians – in Charleston and across our state – to continue along the path we have walked these last two years: a path of grace, faith, love and understanding“, Haley says in a statement. It’s a vague standard that, for the most part, most of us can live with because we appreciate the risky work that officers do.

Shooting a fleeing, unarmed man in the back, however, doesn’t meet that standard, not by any stretch of a fair, objective and rational mind. But the jurors reported later that they were hopelessly unable to reach a unanimous consensus.

“Today I’m not sad”, said Judy Scott Walter Scott’s mother.

A video of the killing – caught on a bystander’s cellphone – was shared widely online and in the media and sparked national outrage.

“We can not have in this country-look, you talk about the officer is innocent until proven guilty, that tape is overwhelming, incontrovertible evidence that this man was shot innocently in the back”, Hannity continued. Scott lays face-down on the ground, dying.

Scott was pulled in North Charleston for having a broken taillight on his 1990 Mercedes and then fled the auto, running into a vacant lot. “There’s always another reason”. Only one case involved a murder charge that stuck, he said. Most are deemed justified and resolved without ever going to a grand jury. He became the executioner.

“At that point I pulled my firearm and pulled the trigger”, he said. “He doesn’t get to fire against the guy that’s not a threat to anybody”. “I’m just waiting on the Lord”, Judy Scott said during a press conference.

Judge Clifton Newman allowed the jury, which began deliberating Wednesday night, to consider the lesser offense of manslaughter, which carries a potential sentence of up to 30 years in prison.

Alas, that was not enough. “God is my strength and I know without a doubt that he is a just God and injustice will not prevail“.