(Photo by Kevin Hagen/Getty Images)
Michael Slager, the police officer who shot Walter Scott in the back, will plead guilty to a federal civil rights violation.
You might remember that a jury of Slager’s white peers in South Carolina could not reach a verdict on whether shooting a fleeing, unarmed black man was a crime. Slager’s trial ended in a hung jury, in December.
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I guess Slager couldn’t count on finding at least one racist at the federal level.
We’ll have to wait and see if his guilty plea carries any jail time, or how much time you get for shooting a black person in the back. But what we do know is that the plea agreement drops all remaining federal and state charges. There had been talk about South Carolina re-trying Slager, but this plea will end that hope.
That’s probably for the best. Can you really expect to find 12 people to impartially try a cop in South Carolina?
In case you forgot, here’s the thing that won’t be called a “murder.”
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Ex-South Carolina Police Officer To Plead Guilty In Fatal Shooting Of Walter Scott [Talking Points Memo]
Michael Slager, officer who shot Walter Scott in South Carolina, to plead guilty in federal case [Los Angeles Times]
Earlier:
https://abovethelaw.com/2016/12/jury-cant-decide-if-shooting-a-fleeing-unarmed-black-man-five-times-in-the-back-is-a-crime/
Elie Mystal is an 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.