Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver

California's premier full-service law firm with an emphasis on the representation of peace officers in disciplinary, criminal, labor, workers' compensation, personal injury and other civil matters.

  • About Us
  • Practice Areas
    • Labor Representation
    • Civil Litigation
    • Personal Injury
      • Example of Case Results
    • Workers’ Compensation
    • DOE Security Clearance Hearings
    • Peace Officers
    • Firefighters
    • EMS Agency Investigations
    • Criminal Defense
    • CalPERS Appeals
  • Our Team
  • Classes
  • Media
    • Bulletins
    • RLS in the News
  • Resources
    • Links
    • Resources
    • Newsletters
  • Clients
  • Contact Us
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy

Video of police shooting isn’t a lock for criminal conviction

April 10, 2015 by Hien Nguyen

From: San Francisco Chronicle
By: Bob Egelko 4/10/15

Video cameras showed BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle fatally shooting Oscar Grant, an unarmed black man, on an Oakland transit platform in 2009. Video footage also displayed four Los Angeles officers brutally beating black motorist Rodney King in 1991, and an officer in Staten Island, N.Y., taking down another black man, Eric Garner, last year with what proved to be a fatal choke-hold.

One lesson from those cases is that videos of police assaults don’t necessarily lead to maximum criminal convictions — perhaps even in the latest incident, in which a white South Carolina police officer was caught on a cell phone video camera shooting Walter Scott, an unarmed black man, in the back last Saturday as Scott was fleeing on foot.

A jury acquitted Mehserle of murdering Grant and convicted him instead of involuntary manslaughter, accepting his assertion that he had mistaken his gun for a Taser. Another California jury acquitted the Los Angeles officers of criminally assaulting King, though a federal jury later convicted two of them of violating King’s civil rights. And a New York prosecutor decided not to charge any officers in Garner’s death, though the U.S. Justice Department could still file civil rights charges.

The video evidence against North Charleston Officer Micheal Slager seems even more compelling, enough so that many observers believe a murder conviction is inevitable.

Video, report differ

A camera mounted on the dashboard of Slager’s patrol car shows Scott, 50, running from his car after a traffic stop. There is an unseen confrontation between the two before the cell phone video picks it up as Scott is fleeing down a trail. Slager aims and fires eight shots. Four bullets hit Scott in the back.

The video then shows Slager walking up to Scott’s body and dropping a dark object, possibly a Taser, alongside him. The officer may have been planting the Taser that, in his police report, he said Scott had grabbed before the shooting. The report also said Slager and another officer tried to perform CPR to revive Scott, but the video shows no sign of that.

The graphic evidence prompted prosecutors in North Charleston to act with unusual speed in filing first-degree murder charges against the 33-year-old Slager. They announced Friday that they will seek an indictment from a grand jury.

But some legal analysts caution that cases that look open-and-shut on video may look different at a trial.

Events offscreen

“Your first line of defense is, ‘Stuff happened that wasn’t on the video, stuff that might explain what was on the video,’” said Rory Little, a law professor at UC Hastings in San Francisco. “We don’t know what happened when the officer first confronted him. … There may be other witnesses out there.”

There is, for example, the gap between events shown on Slager’s dashboard camera, an apparently calm exchange after the officer stopped Scott for a broken brake light, and Scott’s flight and fatal shooting recorded by a passerby. Slager might claim, as he did in his police report, that Scott acted menacingly in the interval between the videos.

Franklin Zimring, a UC Berkeley law professor who is working on a book about killings by police, said an argument could be made for a lesser conviction of voluntary manslaughter.

If Slager says that he feared for his life, prosecutors would “have to prove that he really didn’t have a perception that he was in danger” to convict him of murder, Zimring said. Even an unreasonable belief by Slager in the need for self-defense could lead to a jury verdict of voluntary manslaughter, he said, and in police cases, “the notion that unreasonable beliefs can be genuine is something that juries tend to identify with.”

Contradictions may hurt

However, others with experience in criminal cases against law enforcement officers, including Mehserle’s defense lawyer, Michael Rains, said the contradictions between Slager’s self-justifying police report and the explosive video should strengthen the case for murder.

“The officer could say, ‘He had fought with me over my Taser. I believed he wanted to use it against me. Then he resisted and was attempting to avoid apprehension,’” said Rains, a Pleasant Hill attorney who has represented numerous law enforcement officers.

But because the video appears to refute Slager’s version of events, Rains added, “this guy’s got a big uphill battle with credibility. Almost everything he says will be viewed with suspicion” by the jury.

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said the video appeared to show Slager as a cold-blooded killer. “I can’t imagine that he’s not convicted of murder,” he said in an interview.

“I’m not easily shocked, and I was shocked at how calm the officer was during the entire commitment of that crime,” Suhr said. “He’s never anything other than cold and calculating throughout the entire event.”

Officers’ support key

A key element in any possible defense is the support of fellow officers. In Mehserle’s case, other BART officers who were on the Fruitvale Station platform, where the shooting occurred, backed up Mehserle’s testimony that Grant, whose hands were partially hidden, might have posed a threat. They also testified that they heard Mehserle shout his intent to use his Taser before firing his handgun.

The Rodney King case illustrates other potential lines of defense. The officers testified that they were defending themselves from King’s aggressive behavior that took place before the video camera started rolling. Another officer, testifying as an expert witness, said a stop-action, frame-by-frame analysis of the video showed that what appeared to be police brutality was actually reasonable force.

Arguments like those are implausible in the South Carolina case, said Laura McNeal, a University of Louisville law professor who writes training manuals for police interactions with youths that are used in several cities, including San Francisco. She said there was no evidence that Scott, who was of average height and weight, posed a threat to Slager or anyone else or possessed a weapon.

Type of murder conviction

“I’d be hard-pressed to find a jury that would not convict this officer of murder,” McNeal said. She said a jury might conclude that Slager didn’t have time to plan the killing and convict him of second-degree murder instead of premeditated first-degree murder.

Zimring, who has researched police homicide cases, said he’s never heard of such a conviction for a police officer charged with killing someone while on duty. In a case like this in which Slager was evidently responding to Scott, Zimring said, “they’ll never find premeditation.”

But Little, of UC Hastings, said courts have ruled in non-police cases that “premeditation can happen in an instant,” even in the time between a killer’s first and second gunshots. In view of Slager’s apparent lack of credibility, he said, his best hope is to negotiate a deal with the prosecutor for something less than first-degree murder.

And in this case, said Rains, the veteran police lawyer, if a prosecutor agreed to a guilty plea for manslaughter, “I think the public would throw that prosecutor out.”

 

Filed Under: RLS In The News Tagged With: michael-l-rains

Related News

  • Former Alameda County Deputy Granted Industrial Disability Retirement After Criminal Charges Dismissed and Record Sealed
  • Analysis of State DOJ OIS Investigations Pursuant to AB 1506
  • RLS Eager to Clear Alameda Officer Charged in Death of Mario Gonzalez
  • Judge Recuses Alameda District Attorney Price from Officer-Involved Shooting Case
  • DA Price May Face New Recusal Fight in Steven Taylor Case

Consultation Form

Offices across California to serve you.
Contact us now to schedule a consultation.
Contact form not loading? Click here!
Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver, PC publishes this website as a service to our clients and other friends for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for specific legal advice or opinions, and the transmission of information through this website is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship between sender and receiver. Internet subscribers and online readers should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. By providing a telephone number and submitting the form you are consenting to be contacted by SMS text message. Message & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out of further messaging.

© 2025 Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver, PC. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer

Click here for our privacy policy. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Read our privacy policy for more details.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie settingsACCEPTREJECT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

Please read our full privacy policy by clicking here.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.

Please see our privacy policy for more information.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT
  • Contact Us

  • News Alerts

  • Privacy Policy

Official logo for Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver
Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver Logo
  • About Us
  • Practice Areas
    ▼
    • Labor Representation
    • Civil Litigation
    • Personal Injury
      ▼
      • Example of Case Results
    • Workers’ Compensation
    • DOE Security Clearance Hearings
    • Peace Officers
    • Firefighters
    • EMS Agency Investigations
    • Criminal Defense
    • CalPERS Appeals
  • Our Team
  • Classes
  • Media
    ▼
    • Bulletins
    • RLS in the News
  • Resources
    ▼
    • Links
    • Resources
    • Newsletters
  • Clients
  • Contact Us
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
Hotline phone numbers. Northern California: 925-609-1699. Southern California: 310-393-1486.