USA TODAY International Edition
Chicago cop puts trust in jury
In McDonald case, he bucks the trend
CHICAGO – Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago police officer facing murder charges for the controversial shooting death of Laquan McDonald, made the surprising decision Friday to have his case decided by a jury.
With the move, Van Dyke bucked the trend for officers facing serious charges who have favored having a judge – arguably more likely to understand the intricacy of law and seemingly less likely to be persuaded by dramatic or emotional testimony – decide their fate.
For months, defense attorneys complained that Van Dyke, who police video shows fired 16 shots at the 17-year-old black suspect, had been treated as a pariah in an avalanche of media coverage and that it was impossible for him to get a fair jury trial in Chicago.
But those concerns were set aside after cobbling together a jury panel that included a young Latina woman who is aspiring to be a Chicago cop, a gun rights proponent who relayed his “respect for officers,” and a stay-at-home mom who spoke positively of officers trying to “do their jobs.”
“The defendant will opt for a jury trial,” Daniel Hebert, Van Dyke’s lead defense attorney, said Friday.
Recent history – both in Chicago and around the country – suggests that police officers on trial in emotionally charged, high-stake cases have fared well by taking the bench trial route.
Of the 94 nonfederal sworn law enforcement officers in the country who have been charged with murder or manslaughter in an on-duty shooting incident since 2005, 17 have been convicted by a jury, and 16 have pleaded guilty, but none has been convicted by a judge, according to Philip Stinson, an associate professor of criminology at Bowling Green State University.
For the 42 officers whose cases ended in a nonconviction, 22 were acquitted at a jury trial, nine were acquitted at a bench trial, four saw charges dismissed by a judge, six saw charges dropped by a prosecutor, and in one instance a “no true bill” was returned from a grand jury, according to Stinson. Nineteen cases are still pending.
Van Dyke’s lawyers are still hoping Judge Vincent Gaughan will agree at the last moment to move the trial. The judge, however, said he won’t rule on the change of venue until after all jurors are sworn in, which is expected to be completed Monday.
The judge also told attorneys to prepare for opening statements Monday.
The racial composition of the jury is seven white jurors, three Hispanics, one African-American and one Asian-American. Cook County, which includes the 5.2 million residents in Chicago and inner-ring suburbs, is 42.3 percent white, 25 percent Hispanic, 24 percent black and 7.7 percent Asian.
Van Dyke’s team used its first five peremptory challenges –an objection made to a juror without needing to state a reason – to excuse three black candidates, one Hispanic woman and a man who appeared to be of South Asian descent. The prosecution used peremptory strikes against three candidates, all white.
Prosecutors complained after one young black candidate was excused by the defense team that race was factoring in how Van Dyke’s attorney’s used the peremptory challenges. The defense team turned the tables on prosecutors after they excused a white juror who said he had friends who are cops.
“This case isn’t about black or white,” assistant defense attorney Randy Rueckert said. “The press has made it about black and white, for gosh sake.”
Andrea Lyon, a Valparaiso University Law School professor and former Cook County public defender, noted that Herbert was accused of excluding black jurors for a different on-duty Chicago police shooting case heard in federal court last year.
Hebert denied he was using race as a factor in picking that jury for the case – in which a Chicago cop was convicted of using excessive force for shooting 16 times at a moving vehicle driven by teens – but the judge in that case refused to allow him to use a peremptory challenge to excuse an African-American man, who was selected to become the 12th juror.
The case, one of several deadly confrontations with police throughout the country that has spurred a larger conversation about policing in black communities, marks the first time since 1981 that a Chicago police officer has gone to trial on murder charges.
Van Dyke appears in the police video, which the city was forced to release by court order 400 days after the incident and on the same day he was charged, to shoot McDonald as he was walking away from police.
Thirteen of the 16 shots were fired while McDonald, who was holding a small knife, was on the ground.
Officers, including Van Dyke, were called to the area after receiving reports that McDonald, who had a history of mental illness and had PCP in his system, had been breaking into trucks.
The teen slashed the tire of a police vehicle not long before he was shot on a street. Van Dyke told investigators he acted in self-defense.
Van Dyke’s attorneys went to great lengths to make the case that finding an unbiased panel could not be done.
The defense team commissioned a poll that found 98.5 percent of black respondents who had seen police dashcam video of the officer firing 16 shots at the black teen believed Van Dyke, who is white, was not in danger when he fired.
“This case isn’t about black or white. The press has made it about black and white, for gosh sake.” Randy Rueckert, assistant defense attorney