j***h
发帖数: 4412 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 SanFrancisco 讨论区 】
发信人: jeffh (Jeffh), 信区: SanFrancisco
标 题: Mehserle sentenced to 2 years
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Fri Nov 5 16:35:30 2010, 美东)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/05/BA061G7HVS.DTL
Mehserle sentenced to 2 years
Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle November 5, 2010 01:07 PM Copyright San Francisco
Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Friday, November 5, 2010
(11-05) 13:07 PDT LOS ANGELES -- A judge sentenced former BART police
Officer Johannes Mehserle today to two years in state prison for fatally
shooting unarmed train rider Oscar Grant during a video-recorded arrest in
Oakland on Jan. 1, 2009.
A jury in Los Angeles County, where the trial was moved, found Mehserle
guilty of involuntary manslaughter in July, acquitting him of the more
serious charges of murder and voluntary manslaughter. Mehserle testified
that he killed Grant accidentally, after mistaking his service pistol and
his Taser.
The verdict meant that jurors concluded that Mehserle, 28, did not intend to
kill Grant, 22, when he shot him in the back at Fruitvale Station, but
acted negligently and took his life unlawfully. The jury also found that
Mehserle, a Napa County resident, had used a gun during the crime.
Today, Judge Robert Perry gave Mehserle two years for the involuntary
manslaughter conviction, the shortest term possible, and threw out the gun
enhancement, saying it was not supported by the evidence.
With credit for time he has already served behind bars, Mehserle will be
eligible for release in about a year.
Mehserle's possible sentence for involuntary manslaughter was two, three or
four years, plus three, four or 10 years for the gun enhancement. The
defense pushed for Mehserle's release on probation, which state law allows
in involuntary manslaughter cases that are considered unusual.
The two sides had disagreed on what the jury signaled with its verdict. The
defense said jurors showed they believed Mehserle's "Taser confusion" story
when they rejected murder and voluntary manslaughter, both of which require
an intent to kill.
Prosecutors disagreed. They said jurors had found that Mehserle did not
intend to kill Grant, but that he had meant to shoot him. The gun
enhancement, prosecutors noted, required the panel to find that Mehserle had
fired a gun on purpose.
Defense attorneys believe the jury misapplied the gun enhancement after it
was poorly explained to them.
During trial, prosecutor David Stein said Mehserle had "lost all control" of
his emotions before the shooting. The defense said he had made a mistake
under pressure and cast blame on poor training at BART - particularly on the
agency's Taser training, which Mehserle received a month before the
shooting - and on the character of Grant, who had spent time in prison.
Grant had been detained at about 2 a.m. that New Year's Day, along with four
friends, for fighting on a Dublin-Pleasanton train. Within minutes,
Mehserle's then-colleague on the BART force, Anthony Pirone, reported that
Grant had resisted him and ordered his arrest. Stein argued that the arrest
itself was unlawful because Grant had cooperated.
Mehserle then moved to handcuff Grant as he lay on his chest, but struggled
to pull back the Hayward man's right arm before standing up and pulling out
his pistol.
Taking the stand near the end of the trial, Mehserle testified that he had
decided to use his Taser because he saw Grant put his right hand in his
pants pocket and believed he might be reaching for a gun.
Mehserle said he had accidentally pulled out his pistol and fired a single
shot before realizing he had grabbed the wrong weapon.
Mehserle's shooting of Grant was witnessed by scores of New Year's revelers,
several of whom recorded it on cell-phone cameras.
The trial was moved to Los Angeles in an effort to find impartial jurors. In
the Bay Area, many community leaders, activists and others saw the shooting
as a window into a larger problem of police officers abusing people of
color with little accountability. Mehserle is white, while Grant was black.
The sentencing is not the final word on Grant's deathThe U.S. Justice
Department has said that its civil rights division, along with the U.S.
attorney's office and the FBI, will investigate the shooting "to determine
whether the evidence warrants federal prosecution."
Pirone and his partner the night of the shooting, Marysol Domenici, were
fired earlier this year by BART - Pirone for his actions on the train
platform and Domenici for the way she reported the incident to investigators
. Their appeals are pending.
BART agreed in January to pay $1.5 million in a civil settlement to Grant's
daughter, Tatiana Grant, who is now 6. But Grant's mother, along with
several of his friends who were with him when he was shot, still have
pending lawsuits that may go to trial.
E-mail Demian Bulwa at d****[email protected].
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/05/BA061G7HVS.DTL#ixzz14RU7eev4 |
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