CINCINNATI—Facing uphill battles to find jurors willing to convict police officers, prosecutors in two states say they will try again to win guilty verdicts against white officers in the fatal shootings of black men.
A judge in the case against former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing set a Monday hearing on a timetable for a retrial. Jurors couldn’t reach a verdict on murder and voluntary manslaughter charges against him in the death of Sam DuBose, and a mistrial was declared Nov. 12.
A South Carolina jury deadlocked Dec. 5 on the same charges against Michael Slager, a former North Charleston officer. The prosecutor also pledged to try Slager again for the death of Walter Scott.
Legal experts say the mistrials underscore the difficulties prosecutors face in police cases, with many jurors unwilling to second-guess officers’ split-second reactions when they claim to be in danger.
“Juries tend to give police officers the benefit of the doubt,” said Mike Allen, a Cincinnati attorney and former prosecutor. “You can argue till the cows come home whether that’s right or not.”
In both trials, the former officers testified in their own defenses and said they feared for their lives. Tensing, 27, said he believed he could be killed by DuBose’s car, as the 43-year-old man tried to drive away after he was stopped by Tensing in July 2015 for a missing front license plate. Slager, 35, said the 50-year-old Scott wrestled his stun gun away and pointed it at him after he stopped Scott for a broken tail light in April 2015.
