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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Jurors In South Carolina Police Murder Trial Get More Instructions

A majority of jurors in the trial of a white former South Carolina police officer accused of murder in the shooting death of a black motorist cannot reach a verdict in the case.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (CN) - A majority of jurors in the trial of a white former South Carolina police officer accused of murder in the shooting death of a black motorist cannot reach a verdict in the case.

The revelation came Monday morning after the jury passed a note to the judge asking for further instructions from the court.

Former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager is accused of murdering Walter Scott during what began as a routine traffic stop for a broken taillight on April 4, 2015.

Scott bolted from the scene, reportedly because he feared arrest for failure to pay child support. Slager caught up to Scott in a nearby park, and in a scene captured on video by a passerby, shot the unarmed man in the back five times, killing him.

Slager has maintained that what the video doesn't show is a physical altercation that occurred before the passerby happened on the scene, and that during that conflict, Scott grabbed the officer's Taser.

Slager says he feared for his life after that happened and that's why he fired at the fleeing man.

The note passed to Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman Monday morning asked a number of questions about the law and how certain nuances of it should be interpreted.

Among the questions the jurors asked was why Newman added voluntary manslaughter to the charges Slager faces - a development that occurred last week -- and how long someone must have malice in their mind to be convicted of murder.

In South Carolina murder is defined as killing someone as an act of malice.

The jurors also wanted to know whether the definition of self-defense for a police officer is different for an average person.

As of 3 p.m. Monday, the jury has been deliberating Slager's fate for 22 hours.

Categories / Civil Rights, Criminal, Trials

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