This must begin with the statement that the death of Duante Wright was tragic and avoidable. However, the criminal conviction of the police officer who caused the death raises a number of issues which will likely be addressed at the appellate level.
The family of Mr. Wright has suffered an irreparable loss, that is unarguable. The police officer suffers from the fact that a life was lost from the performance of her duty and lasts a lifetime. Her family also suffers as well.
There must be accountability for mistakes made which cause death, but the criminalizing of a mistake is a question which needs to be addressed. A surgeon operates in a sterile environment, yet their “mistakes” are civil not criminal. The police officer does not operate in a sterile environment, they operate in a fluid environment where there are no safeguards or control.
Among the problems in this case is that the defense attorneys are being vilified for arguing that Mr. Wright bears responsibility for his own demise, but the reality is that had Mr. Wright submitted to the lawful arrest, he would be alive today. That does not justify the actions leading to his death, but it is a fact.
The behavior outside the courtroom when the verdict was announced is nothing less than reprehensible. Reverse the situation and consider joy and cheers over the conviction of a cop killer. The media would be apoplectic in its denouncing that action, yet there is no criticism of people calling for ‘retribution’ for this officer.
The reality is that the effectiveness of all police training is restricted because the closer to real life it gets, the more potential of serious injury to the participants. Las Vegas Metro Police implemented a training program run at full speed and the results were injuries to many officers, including broken bones. The cost associated with those injuries was astronomical, not including the loss of the officers for an extended period. Police officers are trained not to lose eye contact with the human being who can cause them injury or death. They are taught to feel for the handle and trigger without looking down. Perhaps a change in the Taser offering a different firing mechanism would lead to less mistakes because officers would not be feeling for a trigger.
Human beings make their own decisions and some of them result in bad outcomes. A suspect makes the determination of the necessary use of force needed to take them into custody. A misdemeanor warrant is not punishable by death, but the person decides whether or not to comply with the orders of police officers. To allow them to walk away empowers a person to escalate the next encounter because the earlier contact had a successful outcome for them.
Doctors pay insurance premiums in the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to cover them from a ‘mistake.’ They never face criminal prosecution for performing their medical function. Why are law enforcement officers treated differently?
The pressure to reach a verdict in order to avoid a mistrial creates a major problem. It causes jurors in the majority to pressure the dissenting jurors to come over to their side or waste hours and days continuing to deliberate. One of the jurors in the Potter case was seen visibly crying as the verdict was read.
There are no winners in this case.