Walter Scott, a 50-year-old unarmed Black man, was shot in the back and killed as he ran away from a white South Carolina police officer in April 2015. A bystander caught the incident on video, including now-former Officer Michael Slager, 35, planting a Taser beside Scott’s body as he lay on the ground dying — not even attempting CPR.
According to most observers, including many in law enforcement, Slager’s murder trial was to be an open-and-shut case. But thanks to a lone juror who said he “cannot in good conscience” convict the ex-cop, a South Carolina judge on Monday was forced to declare a mistrial in the case.
The juror, in a jury composed of six white men, five white women and one Black man, was the sole holdout after two days of deliberation on Friday, writing in a note to the judge, “I cannot in good conscience consider a guilty verdict. At the same time, my heart does not want to tell the Scott family that the man who killed their son, brother and father is innocent. But with the choices, I cannot and will not change my mind.”
