Will the district attorney in South Carolina seek the death penalty against the police officer?
I doubt the DA will look for anything more than manslaughter. Even with the video evidence of the cop going back to get his taser and plant it next to Scott (Also note the other cop not seeming to care about this - as if it’s a common occurence). If not for the video, I doubt the cop would have even gotten a stern talking to from his commander.
It looks like it would be standard second degree murder case. Do you see premeditation which would make it a first degree murder (and thus eligible for the death penalty).
In most codes, including South Carolina’s, all murder is premeditated (or committed "with malice aforethought). That’s the difference between murder and manslaughter.
There is no crime of “first degree murder” in South Carolina. However, there are aggravating factors which may be discussed at sentencing to elevate the penalty for the single crime of “murder” to the death penalty, which are basically identical to those which distinguish “first degree” from “second degree” murder in states which use “first degree murder” as the death penalty offense.
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t16c003.php
Of those, the only ones which may apply here are:
A tendentious reading of this could result in prosecuting anyone who fires a weapon at a running person several yards away in an open space, as this could be irresponsibly hazardous to others in the area. It seems like this is designed to prosecute bombings and terrorist activity and probably would not work by precedent (i.e., if no one in South Carolina has been prosecuted under this theory before).
Depending on what is discovered about the motives of all the officers involved and the culture which produced this act. Again, a stretch, probably won’t happen.
In a sense, any cop who kills a suspect illegally and can be shown to have done so in order to cover up earlier acts of police brutality (a crime) against the suspect is guilty of this. Again, won’t actually be used here.
No police officer in the U.S. has been convicted of murder for on-duty actions in twenty years. If this cop is convicted of anything it will be a landmark event. I wouldn’t hold my breath for him getting the totality of what he deserves.
I dunno; Governor Nikki Haley, from the article, said the shooting was “not acceptable” which is mighty strong language.
North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey sagely opined: “When you’re wrong, you’re wrong.”
Whilst stern lovable old North Charleston Police Chief Eddie Driggers ‘…appeared to be fighting tears as he described his feelings watching the video.’
“I think that all of these police officers on this force, men and women, are like my children," he told reporters. "So you tell me how a father would react.”
Will it be a loving, forgiving father, or a wrathful, smiting papa ? The Nation Awaits.
The greatest of all American writers once pointed out the public will adore either judge father who hangs his own son for breaking the law, or who breaks down himself and vows he can’t sentence his own darling boy. Anyway, they seem to be avoiding stiff upper lip training at the academy.
I really think it could be different this time. They learnt so much from the Milwaukee case last year outside Starbucks who called the force in, when a police officer, threatened by a homeless guy sleeping in the park, had to shoot him 14 times; and Michigan later that year, when the police found a homeless guy had stolen a cup of coffee, and had to shoot him 11 times.
Apart from suggesting homeless people should avoid coffee, I would suggest a little more sparsity with the ammo. If I remember, and I wasn’t that interested, security forces in Northern Ireland had to account for every bullet. In the second incident the cops had to shoot 47 bullets for 11 hits. Certainly those hits were enough to kill him, but it’s wasteful.
In the first case, Governor Walker said of protesters: “It’s one of the great things about living in America—people have the right to protest. They just don’t have the right to put other people’s lives at risk. I’m just asking that they be mindful of that.”
In the circumstances that counts as great irony.
This is pure speculation, but this may be semantics. I can’t imagine a police officer going to prison and living out his sentence
Plenty of police officers have gone to prison over the years. They’re often housed in segregated areas or solitary confinement.
South Carolina has summary executions of black men for allegedly driving with a tail light out.
As **Haberdash **points out, very unlikely for the case to be presented as “capital” murder, due to the narrow set of conditions for it to qualify. Also, prosecutors will probably say to themselves “oh please, it’s going to be hard enough to find a jury who’d convict a cop on murder, period, imagine if death is on the table?”.
Penalty for aggravated murder in SC is Death or LWOP; straight murder is 30-to-life and fixed-time sentences are subject to parole. Voluntary manslaughter is 2-to-30 depending on circumstances.
[Off GQ and into IMO]
So file regular murder to make the point, and throw in a number of whatever other offences you can find in the facts, so a jury can find him guilty of something without injecting or frying him or throwing away the key, or so he can plead guilty and get 30 with the right to parole and time off. And who knows, a case so utterly brazen, it could be made to stick.
That’s pretty poorly drafted. Let’s say that I work at Waffle House and see my enemy come into the restaurant. I go over and stab him. Well…I am eligible for the death penalty because I “committed murder” as an “employee” of another person.
I know that’s not what it means, but it should be worded better.
Moderator Warning
The Second Stone, I’m sure you’re aware that this kind of inflammatory political commentary is not appropriate for General Questions. This is an official warning.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Moderator Note
Claverhouse, this kind of opining is also inappropriate for GQ. No warning issued, since it’s not as extreme as The Second Stone’s, but refrain from this in the future.
Colibri
General Questions
Since it requires speculation, the OP was inappropriate for GQ in the first place. Since discussion is likely to be heated, I’m moving this to Great Debates.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Well, it was intended to be a factual question and I’d say that answer #4 provided exactly the information I was looking for.
I don’t see any possible death verdict here. Manslaughter most likely.
It’s time to ALSO indite the other officer as an accessory to an attempted cover up. He just stood there and watched the cop move evidence.(or so it appears) That’s totally unacceptable.
I typically support the cops and the job they do, but I expect that they do their job in an honest and professional manner. This guy appears to be neither.
As a Charlestonian who drives near there everyday I’d just like to thank him - ironically - for giving us this sort of headache. For the next year that’s how people will know Charleston. Not as the tourist destination or the burgeoning technology hub.
Dammit.
Now that we are in GD, I’d like to point out, as a matter of documented fact, that in the United States, black men are summarily executed with some regularity by police forces. To wit, Eric Garner was summarily executed for selling loose cigarettes. Walter Scott was summarily executed for allegedly driving with a non-operational tail light, and then framed for stealing and brandishing a taser. This is not unusual in the US. What has changed is that now virtually everyone has in their form of a mobile phone a video/audio recording device on their person and that people are now recording many of the incidents they see and are not directly involved with.
Here’s another of a woman being beaten: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/07/05/3456686/california-highway-patrol-beat-woman/
I’m a tad curious what possible Federal charges could be brought, if any, and their potential penalties.
The officer seems to deserve it. The guy was running away, contrary to his own account that the guy was attacking him, and in the end he even planted evidence. At the least, he should rot in jail for a long time and the other inmates should know he was a cop. Makes me wonder how many claimed justifiable homicides would be refuted if only we had video of the incident
Well, let’s compare with the small sample size of citizen video we have: Eric Garner and Walter Scott. Neither was a justifiable homicide. Do we have any citizen video where homicide is justifiable?