Posted on 06/18/2015 4:43:18 PM PDT by IChing
In all the frenzy over the shocking massacre which took place last night in Charleston, South Carolina, what’s being missed is that there’s another huge shock on the way for that city, and for the entire country, if a certain way of analyzing of the murder case against former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager turns out to be correct.
I’m not the only one who has said that Slager is being over-charged, and will most likely beat the murder rap. Others have also pointed out that although he was wrong in shooting the fleeing Walter Scott, and that the incident likely amounted to the serious crime of manslaughter, all the evidence and circumstances do not appear to support conviction beyond a reasonable doubt for murder. There are too many mitigating factors — having to do with the prolonged foot chase and struggle between the two men, with both ending up on the ground, Scott on top of Slager (the first seconds of shaky video do show this), the fight over the taser, and the case law regarding police officers’ use of deadly force.
So what happens if the jury returns a verdict of not guilty on murder? Does the jury have the option to convict on any lesser charge, say, manslaughter, or does Slager just walk away free? In the absence of any information to the contrary, the latter looks to be the case. I’ve called the office of Scarlett Wilson, Charleston County Solicitor, twice in the last week trying to get an answer as to whether the jury will be asked to decide only on murder, or has any other option, but my calls have not been returned. My attempts to find information online to clarify the matter have been unsuccessful.
South Carolina’s criminal code does not have degrees of murder, nor degrees of manslaughter — just two different crimes, murder and manslaughter.
If Slager goes free, what’s likely to happen is that not only will Charleston (if you recall, also the site of the first shots fired in the Civil War, at Fort Sumter) go up in flames, but it’s likely other cities across the country will, too.
In Charleston, we’ve already seen some ugly skirmishing in what might be called a low-level ongoing race war in our country. Not long after Slager killed Scott, frantic Charleston residents and tourists made 911 calls to report a rampaging mob of around fifty young black people tearing through the downtown streets at night, attacking random white people and destroying property. Now, we have a young white man in police custody for suspicion of gunning down a group of black churchgoers there within the last 24 hours. The church in question happens to be the headquarters of key black leaders who organized and led racially-oriented protests in Sanford, Florida, in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland. Allegedly, through a woman who says he singled her out to spare in order to carry his message, the shooter relayed grievances about blacks as his motive for killing. She quoted him as saying, “You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”
So it all seems to be heading toward something ominous. No trial date has been set for Michael Slager, and it might not even start until next year.
It’s impossible that the those who would riot, loot, and burn over incidents like this church massacre, or pending acquittal of a white cop in a murder case where a black man died, or any other occasion to rampage, will soon or ever forget their motives or abandon their propensity for destroying entire city blocks and anything/anyone in their path.
In Charleston, and elsewhere, the passage of time until trial verdict may help. But better to just bar the door, in case.
Slager is guilty of first degree murder. In the video you see him pull his pistol as Scott starts to flee. There’s a split second where Slager calms and aims before firing. In that moment he thought about it and fired anyway.
That would be enough to convict Scott has Scott done the same thing to Slager and it should be enough to convict Slager, as well.
The law says otherwise. Get back to me on why it’s often different when police officer’s use deadly force than when civilians do so, if you can get up to speed on it. Also learn about officers’ mental states in deadly force encounters, and manslaughter definition while you’re at it.
officers, not officer’s (danged tablet)
Its Charleston, SC. If Al Sharpton shows up there, THE BLACKS will run him out town on a rail.
Low country blacks are generally different from the urban goblins in other cities.
I was stationed there 82-86. Was driving through town after bars closed one night, gave a ride to a black hitchhiker who turned out to be fresh off the plane from Africa. Nice guy, invited me to the notorious public housing project to hang out and drink in the apt he was staying. As we sat and sipped beers an American black man came out from a room and began staring at me with hate in his eyes and demeanor. The African guy or Caribbean or wherever he was from tried to get the guy to mellow out and be nice but the guy looked right at me and said “I don’t like white people.” Needless to say I politely excused myself and drove to the AFB in short order.
You may have “dodged a bullet” so to speak, that night.
I'm not a South Carolina lawyer, but in the states where I am licensed, the jury does get to consider lesser charges if they acquit of murder.
I'm Going to Charleston Back to Charleston...maybe not this summer.
Right, that’s why I have been trying to get an answer on it, yet Wilson’s office is not forthcoming with information, nor can I find any online confirmation either way.
Left alone, without outside influence, the entire event would be a non issue, regardless of court outcome.
CITADEL?
I think to get into the Citadel now you have to be a lesbian transracial fudgepacker
I blame Obama, Holder and many other racists for unleashing the dogs of race warfare. They have blatantly refused to acknowledge the extraordinarily high black murder rate in this country, blamed every incident on white cops and any other whites in the area and now the white crazies have come forward. Black leaders have made room for blacks to burn, loot, steal, anything if they can blame it on whites. Now we are closer to a race war than ever before and Obama is nothing more than gasoline on the fire.
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>> “The law says otherwise.” <<
No, it doesn’t.
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>> “I think to get into the Citadel now you have to be a lesbian transracial fudgepacker” <<
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I think you have confused the qualifications to be a California kindergarten teacher with the entry requirements for the citadel.
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Exactly
I lived in Charleston, SC from 1964-1971 and visited frequent thereafter. Went to elementary school there. Integration was already in place - no issues.
Had to move to Boca Raton, Florida to experience the joys of race riots in school. They were even predictable - generally happened the day before any school holiday - the blacks seemed to want an extra day off.
You must not be from around there, no sane white person would do that in the first place, pick up a black man, go to a housing project and then start drinking with them. Crazy.
I was 19 years old, had been out drinking all night, and as you said not from there (I was raised in an all-white rural area of Western New York state) — of course I had HORRIBLE judgment.
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