Michael Slager, the former North Charleston, South Carolina police officer who shot and killed Walter Scott after a traffic stop, entered into a plea agreement in Federal Court settling both the Federal and State criminal charges. The Times offered this analysis in a May 2 article, “The plea agreement, reached nearly five months after a jury in state court deadlocked on a murder charge against Mr. Slager, would represent a rare conviction of a police officer in connection with an on-duty killing.”
The likelihood of a conviction in Federal Court for violation of Mr. Scott’s civil rights had a high probability of success and the decision of Mr. Slager was probably in his best interest. United States Code Section 1983 does not have an intent requirement written into it, only requiring the government to prove a violation of Civil Rights, as opposed to the State Murder charge where the State would have to prove that Slager purposely killed Scott. Neither of the two available defenses which Slager could have invoked apply in this specific case. Graham requires a reasonable officer standard, while Garner requires the suspect present an immediate threat to the officer or the public at large had he been allowed to escape.
Even assuming that Mr. Scott obtained Slager’s Taser (of which there is no evidence), when he was running away empty-handed, he presented no imminent threat to Slager and the use of deadly force was no longer an option. It is also highly unlikely that a reasonable police officer in that situation would have used deadly force on a suspect running away.
Unlike Tamir Rice, where the officer had a split second to decide whether the “weapon” in Rice’s hand was real or a toy and Michael Brown, where the evidence demonstratively proved that Darren Wilson was attacked, this was simply a bad shooting.
Slagel will be sentenced in June and faces possible life in prison. From the known facts, it would appear that Slagel allowed his emotions to override his common sense and training. His mistake will carry consequences.
In conclusion, cops are, first and foremost, human beings with all of the frailties associated with being human. Rarely, they allow their emotions to override their training and discipline and the result is tragic. Interestingly, on the same day as the Charleston case was resolved, Grand Juries in Columbus, Ohio and Baton Rouge, Louisiana ruled that deadly force usage was justified, proving that cops make the correct decision much more often than they are wrong.