Posted on 07/09/2010 2:33:46 PM PDT by thecodont
(07-09) 13:56 PDT OAKLAND -- The attorney for Johannes Mehserle, the former BART police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Oscar Grant, released a handwritten letter today that Mehserle composed Sunday - four days before a Los Angeles jury came back with its verdict in the case.
The full text of the letter released by defense attorney Michael Rains follows:
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/09/BAQB1EC3T3.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0tDspBOYL
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Thank you for catching this.
I’d like to see the trigger mechanism be fundamentally different for Tasers, such as a thumb push button with a very tactile click instead of (or in addition to) a finger pull trigger. The extra complexity could be justified both to prevent more such mistakes (no thumb push button? wrong weapon) and because a Taser is likely to be used in less dangerous circumstances than that in which a gun is needed.
U R Hilarius today! LOL
No, being contrary just for the sake of it does not constitute a discerning juror, thank goodness.
so Filo, it's looks like it's off to the re-education, indoctrination, camps for you.
Why did he feel the need to tase him in the first place? And don't say he was resisting. If he were, it was not evident, and if he was, it was the weakest, most pitiful, most girlie like resistance I have ever seen recorded.
Take the tasers away from cops. Too many die after being tased. Children are tased, elderly are tased, grandmas are tased, bed ridden 86yo grandma on oxygen tased, and now, a cop has claimed to mistake his pistol for a taser and executed a human being lying on his belly while two other cops held him down.
Don't even try to tell me the taser was justified, much less the gun.
Since the Taser is viewed as virtually goof proof, there has been a serious mission creep for Tasers. More likely that you’ll get somewhere accusing an occifer of excessive force for getting a bad bruise while being arrested, than you will for getting Tased.
Trouble is, those who will end up footing the bill for the inevitable lawsuit are those who have little or no influence upon the police’s Tasering practices.
A good Cheetos pig-out is never complete without every finger covered with gummy orange gook which you then proceed to lick off.
That is changing. Some have been charged with homicide after tasering a subject who died after being tased. Fewer coroners are going along with the "excited delirium" excuse.
If this cop didn't have a taser, which he did not need to use anyway, this New Years eve celebrate would still be alive.
What do they tell us about wearing seat belts, along with a host of other things they make us do or not do for our own safety? "If it saves just one life it's worth it." yada yada yada
If he actually intended to use his taser as he claimed, then we could reasonably chalk up another life unnecessarily taken due to the taser.
How many deaths after tasering do we need before someone somewhere says hey, you know, these things might not be less than lethal after all?
It’s hard to chalk up grabbing the wrong weapon to “Malfunction of Taser.” The Taser did exactly what it was “told” to do by the human — it sat idle in its own holster.
That it did. But still, no taser in the holster, no death.
One might view it like the gas and brake pedal brain malfunction. "The harder I pressed the brake the faster it went." So I do accept his excuse as reasonable. But I reject the notion a taser was necessary in the first place.
There was a drug dealing charge. With the gun charge there was also resisting arrest. He was tased during the gun incident and still resisted.
As you may recall in civics class..to get chosen for a jury one must be impartial and willing to look at actual evidence, the law and instructions from the court, and not vote on flights of fancy.
And obviously the defense did well on judging the emotional maturity of the jurors in this case.
Attorneys Spar Over Whether Grant Was Resisting Arrest May 20, 2009
Called as a witness by Rains, passenger Alika Rogers testified that the situation on the platform at the Fruitvale station was so chaotic that she thought a group of people who were in a confrontation with police "were going to start a riot."
Rogers, who works as a paramedic and was on her way back to her home after attending a concert in San Francisco with her boyfriend, said, "I would include Oscar Grant" among a group of people "mouthing off and resisting" police.
Rogers said Mehserle and another officer tried to handcuff Grant at one point "but weren't successful" because Grant resisted them.
Na, most rational people know that human affairs are so messy and imperfect because they are staffed 100% by... humans.
I did muck up my italics, however, a taser has never caused a death.
People have died long after being taser use - from otherwise unrelated conditions. These same people would have died if restrained by sort restraints alone, just sitting alone in a room.
Tasers do not kill.
Wrong again. Tasers have never been even related to the cause of death. Ever. Traumatic injury from gunshot is a cause of death.
He was, well before Mehserle drew.
Again you are dangerously wrong. That suspect was NOT in control. He was still fighting and kicking and STILL HAD AN UNCONTROLLED AND UNSEEN EXTREMITY THAT COULD HAVE A WEAPON. Do you get it yet? He was still dangerous - in the real world.
Not so funny. Your comments have demonstrated an obvious negative opinion to the events before you viewed any evidence, like a researcher discarding data contrary to his hypothesis.
Not true. Increasing medical evidence points to a cascade of physiological events, neurological to circulatory to cardiopulmonary, that is unrelated to the minor current fluctuation of a taser, painful but never lethal.
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