Experts: Convicting ex-offifficer will be diffifficult
HOUSTON — Authorities who have charged a white suburban Dallas police offifficer with murder in a black teenager’s death face a tough task in getting a conviction, legal experts said Saturday.
They said few such cases go to trial and, when they do, juries remain reluctant to second-guess an offifficer’s decision to use deadly force.
Roy Oliver was freed on bond after being charged Friday in the death of 15-yearold Jordan Edwards. Investigators say Oliver fifired a riflfle into a car full of teenagers leaving an unruly party on April 29, killing Edwards. Oliver was fifired by the Balch Springs Police Department three days after the shooting.
Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, said data he has collected on police shootings shows offifficers rarely are charged. It’s even rarer for an offifficer to be convicted, according to the data.
From his research, Stinson estimates that fatal shootings by U.S. police offifficers who are on duty occur about 1,000 times a year. But since 2005, only 81 offifficers have been charged with murder or manslaughter resulting from an on- duty shooting, he said. Of those 81 cases, there have been 30 convictions, 31 cases with no conviction and 20 that are still pending.
I n re c e nt ye a r s , many police shootings have been captured on video taken by officers’ body cameras or witnesses’ cellphones. But Stinson said such evidence still doesn’t guarantee a conviction.
He pointed to the 2015 s h o o t i n g i n S ou t h Ca r o - lina of black motorist Walter Scott by Offifficer Michael Slager. A cellphone video captured Slager shooting Scott fifive times in the back as the unarmed 50-yearold man ran away during a traffiffic stop. In December, a mistrial was declared in Slager’s murder trial after a jury couldn’t reach a verdict. Slager pleaded guilt y last week to a federal charge of violating Scott’s civil rights.
Attorneys for Oliver didn’t immediately return calls or emails seeking comment.