Mistrial For Charlotte Police Officer Who Killed An Unarmed Black Man
Source: NewsOne Now Screenshots / NewsOne Now
It has been two years since officer Randall Kerrick fired 12 shots and killed an unarmed Jonathan Ferrell. After hearing arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys in the case a Charlotte jury admitted that they were hopelessly deadlocked, and unable to reach a verdict in the case.
Jury members could not unanimously decide whether officer Kerrick used excessive force in the encounter which killed Ferrell. Eight of the jurors voted for acquittal while four voted for conviction.
Protesters began to lay down in the middle of the street in downtown Charlotte withing moments of the mistrial chanting “No justice, no peace.”
About the deadlock vote:
Jurors began deliberation Tuesday after 11 days of testimony. On Friday morning, they sent a note to Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin saying they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict.
Ervin asked for a show of hands from the eight women and four men about whether they thought they could not reach a unanimous verdict. All raised their hands.
They revealed that they took their first vote Tuesday afternoon, shortly after jurors receiving instructions from the judge. They were split 7 to 5.
A second vote was taken Thursday afternoon, and it went 8 to 4. Another vote on Friday morning showed no minds had changed.
Defense Attorney George Laughrun asked the judge to declare a mistrial saying “it sounds like there would be no reasonable possibility” of coming to a verdict. Prosecutors asked the judge to let the jury continue its work.
Ervin sent the jury back to deliberate further and they initially indicated they were making progress. But they soon signaled there was no hope for resolving the deadlock.
Ervin declared a mistrial. “The case will remain open per further proceedings,” the Morganton judge told the hushed courtroom.
What occurred in the jury deliberations is largely a mystery.
The spouse of one juror who was reached late Friday said the juror was physically exhausted and didn’t want to talk. But the spouse said the jurors became very close in the deliberation process and that this juror felt “that they were all very good people.”
Two jurors and three of the four alternates declined to speak to Observer reporters, and the others couldn’t be reached.
Wow… do Black lives REALLY matter…?