Defense’s key move
When it comes to figuring out whether to pick a jury of 12 or have a single judge dec idea person’ s fate, there area lot of factors to consider, especially when the client is apolice officer.
Akai Gurley was an innocent man and father who went into a dim ly lit stair well inside the Pink House son Nov .20,2014, and was shot dead by Peter Liang ,a rookie cop. L ian g’ s defense team has opted for a jury, which is unusual for most police-involved shooting cases in New York City. They say it’s because they believe a jury will see this as a tragic accident, not a crime.
The national mood regarding excessive police force has been driven and largely influenced by cases such as Eric Garner on Staten Island, Tamir Rice in Cleveland, and Laquan McDonald in C Chicago. These cases and their deadly re results are unique, and have placed a sp spotlight on overly aggressive policing. In In short, the world is watching, and a si significant degree of mistrust exists for po police within communities across the co country. Yet and still, very few people in in a jury pool view police officers as m murderers, and those who do are dismissed from jury service.
While I likely would have opted togo before a judge, the strategy of allowing a jury to decide does have advantages. Prosecutors have to persuade all 12 jurors Liang committed a crime. This could be a challenge, as it’s often difficult to get 12 people from different walks of life to reach a consensus on what will be a hotly contested issue. L ian g’ s team will try hard to persuade them to give him the benefit of the doubt by showing he was a good officer who was just trying to do his job. In short, their theory will be this was a tragic accident that doesn’ t amount to a crime.
Liang’s lawyers have also indicated he’ ll take the stand. While it can be risky top uta defendant on the stand, Liang is not like most defendants.
Police are skilled in testifying, as it’ s a big part of their job. There’ s little doubt Liang will convincingly tell that jury exactly what was going on in his mind, and the jury will be very eager to hear what he has to say. Ultimately, it is only Liang who can tell the jury what he was thinking and how everything went down. The assessment made by the defense is that he can effectively sway at least one juror, rather than convince one potentially skeptical judge. Convincing one juror results in a hung jury, which equals no conviction. Convincing all 12 would be a home run. We’ ll soon learn whether the defense team got it right.
Joey Jackson is a New York Citybased defense attorney and CNN and HLN legal analyst.