Tuesday, June 27, 2017

It’s Very Difficult to Convict Officers in Police Shootings, Experts Say

It was supposed to be a "slam-dunk."

Prosecutors seemed hopeful Ray Tensing, the University of Cincinnati police officer who shot and killed Samuel DuBose, an unarmed motorist, would be convicted of manslaughter. Tensing was also charged with murder.

But for jurors, the facts of the July 2015 shooting were apparently less clear-cut. After five days of deliberation, the jury said Friday it was deadlocked. A judge declared a mistrial for the second time

It is rare, and extremely difficult, to convict a law enforcement officer after a fatal shooting, according to criminal justice experts who spoke to NBC News on Monday.

That was the lesson of at least two other high-profile police shooting trials in the last two weeks.
 
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