Crime

Judge Willing To Call A Cop A Murderer, Gives Michael Slager 20 Years

Federal judge steps in where South Carolina failed.

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Michael Slager shot Walter Scott in the back from 17 feet away while Scott was running away. Slager then walked over and planted a Taser on Scott’s dead body.

But, because Scott was black and Slager was a cop, a jury in South Carolina could not agree on a verdict. A mistrial was declared.

However, the state intended to prosecute Slager again, and federal authorities decided to bring civil rights charges against Slager. Slager pleaded guilty to the civil rights violation, and South Carolina dropped its case.

But the plea deal allowed the federal judge, David C. Norton, to determine if the shooting was murder or manslaughter, for the purposes of sentencing guidelines.

Today, Norton called it “murder” and sentenced Slager to 20 years.

Prosecutors had wanted a life sentence, but Slager’s lawyers wanted the crime to be ruled manslaughter, and then impose an even more lenient sentence than those guidelines call for.

The fact that Slager is going to jail is a victory for humanity. But it does not surprise me that this basic and belated form of justice emanates from the federal bench, and not from the jury box.

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Individual judges might be biased. They might be unaccountable. If Trump and McConnell get their way, federal judges will be increasingly unqualified and openly hostile to judicial norms. But I still trust judges to be able to understand and follow a set of legal principles. There is a standard for the police use of force. I disagree with that standard. But if we even tried to apply that standard to police, more of them would be held accountable for predating on the African-American community. Judges wouldn’t get all of the killer the cops, but they’d get some of them.

And “some” is a hell of a lot more than juries will do. At this point, I have NO faith in a jury that includes white people to hold their cops accountable for murder. Time and time again, white juries have proven that they simply won’t or can’t do it. White juries have EARNED my distrust by their stubborn refusal to hold cops accountable.

Judges aren’t perfect, but juries are actively trying to make it possible for the police to kill me and my children on a whim. I’m done with juries. I’ll take my chances trying to convince one white judge that cops have behaved unreasonably over trying to convince 12 randomly selected white Americans that I shouldn’t be shot on sight.

Michael Slager, Officer Who Killed Walter Scott, Gets 20-Year Sentence [New York Times]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.

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