CHARLESTON—A judge called recess in the trial on Friday evening in the case of white officer Michael Slager, who fatally shot unarmed black man Walter Scott last April in North Charleston. Eleven jurors have voted to convict Slager of either manslaughter or murder, but one juror is holding out. The juror sent a letter to the judge describing the choice: “Judge, I understand the position of the court, but I cannot with good conscience consider a guilty verdict,” he or she wrote. “I respect the position of my fellow jurors, some of which oppose my position. I expect those who hold opposing views not to change their minds because I see them as good, honest people. Therefore I regret to say we may never reach a unanimous decision. As you stated, we must follow the instructions you have given us and the law. We all struggled with the death of a man and with all that has been put before us. I still cannot, without a reasonable doubt, convict the defendant. At the same time, my heart does not want to have to tell the Scott family that the man who killed their son, brother, and father is innocent. But with the choices, I cannot and will not change my mind.”
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The judge the other day gave the jury the option of Manslaughter so that they could reach a consensus (completely indicating Slager is guilty of a crime and it has to do with killing an unarmed man) and yet the hold out juror is having difficulty reaching a guilty decision for Slager that Scott, an unarmed man was shot in the back 5 times while running away from him. To add to the dismay, Slager (the officer who shot and killed Scott) tried to set the death scene by placing a Taser gun next to the body to claim innocence by self-defense. As with Slager, this juror has the same knowledge as Slager that Scott is going nowhere in a hurry and is no danger to anyone including himself. The only crime Scott is guilty of here is being paranoid - well, maybe not.
you degrade yourself by playing it, you prove that you have no valid argument, or you don't know how to articulate it.
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11-1 verdict.
The state will obviously retry this as it is a clear case of murder.