Everyone I know figured this guy would get convicted, sort of a sacrificial lamb if you will. Activists have been threatening violence worse than Ferguson if he were to be acquitted. He was acquitted this morning. So far the protests have been peaceful. We'll see what the night brings. http://www.ky3.com/content/news/Jud...t-guilty-in-black-mans-killing-444660413.html
This line seems a bit suspicious. "Forensic analysis revealed that Stockley's was the only DNA present on the gun he said belonged to Smith, the criminal complaint said."
The pistol may or may not have been a drop gun. There was no way to prove it, BUT, the other cop testified to seeing it in the car back before the chase when they originally tried to stop the guy, and he wasn't on trial. What strikes me as odd is the AK. He wasn't allowed to carry it, but he had it. However, even though it was on his person, he didn't use it. Weird.
It also means that the dead guy apparently had never touched a gun that he owned. If it were the guys gun, exposed in his car, it stands to reason that he had touched it that day and his DNA would still be quite available on the gun. The fact that another officer not on trial vouched for his former partner really doesn't mean anything to me. The badge doesn't carry any extra weight to me and it's on par with asking a family member of the accused.
How easy is it to get a DNA sample if someone simply touches something? For all I know the deceased could have had more than one weapon. The cop was probably at least a little fearful and a lot pissed. Seems like a questionable acquittal based on the very little I know. Then again, maybe the prosecutors need to stop trying to go for murder 1 and go for what they can prove.
There's a lot of weird shit around this one. This shooting happened in 2011. They didn't bring charges then, but decided to last year over some "new evidence".
If I was caught on video saying "I'm going to kill this motherfucker!" and then proceeded to do just that, I would probably be faced with a prosecutor looking for a murder conviction.
Probably, but you have to have physical evidence to support the charge. Murder 1 is not easy. We had to accept manslaughter in my brother's death even though the physical evidence was irrefutable. Extenuating circumstances made us unwilling to have the defense drag his name through the mud and create a spectacle just to get the killer off.
That's not the exact quote. The recording caught "...gonna kill this motherfucker, don't you know it?" Depending on the context, it could mean several things. If I were in the defense's shoes, I'd contend that it was more of a comment on the subject's willing to escape or die trying, than it was my intent to kill him.
He was black... we already knew the officer "feared for his life"... C'mon... you're gonna have to do better than that
I'd be surprised if something didn't go down there tonight. I had to spend this week in St. Louis for the emergency room nurses convention. This morning when I got up my hotel had 25 Missouri State troopers in the lobby, got to the convention hall right as the verdict was read, within two hours the entire convention hall was put on lockdown for 45 minutes or so. I've never loaded my equipment in my van any quicker, I got the hell out of there. As I was leaving there seemed to be a lot of people headed towards the protest, and they didn't seem real happy.