Court upholds Mehserle conviction (police officer convicted of killing Oscar Grant)

[alp227]

Source: SF Chronicle

A state appeals court upheld the involuntary manslaughter conviction of former BART policeman Johannes Mehserle on Friday, rejecting the claim that his fatal shooting of unarmed passenger Oscar Grant was a tragic but innocent mistake.

The jury was entitled to conclude that Mehserle acted with criminal negligence when he shot Grant on an Oakland transit platform, according to the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco.

Grant, 22, of Hayward, was arrested at BART's Fruitvale Station in the early-morning hours of Jan. 1, 2009, after a disturbance on a train. As he lay face-down on the platform, Mehserle, who had been trying to handcuff him, shot him in the back.

Mehserle said he had intended to fire his Taser stun gun to subdue Grant. The case was moved to Los Angeles because of intense news coverage and protests in the Bay Area. In July 2010, the jury acquitted Mehserle of murder but convicted him of involuntary manslaughter.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/08/BAHB1OV72A.DTL

[loudsue]

1. This is WONDERFUL!!! That asshole shot Grant on fucking purpose, and it

was obvious from the git-go. The asshole should rot in jail for the rest of his life.

[liberalhistorian]

2. He should have been convicted of murder, and not

involuntary manslaughter. I've seen many different videos of the shooting, and in each and every one of them it is obvious that it is not a mistake. And, even if it were, why the fuck did he find it necessary to "subdue", with a fucking Taser no less, a man who was lying facedown with his ARMS BEHIND HIS BACK AND HANDCUFFED? There was NO reason for Tasering AT.ALL. NONE. It was murder, plain and simple.

[loudsue]

4. I totally agree.

The cop is a murderer, and I'm really tired of the two justice systems we have in this country. One for the powerful, that always takes precedent over who is considered "guilty", and the other one for those without resources.

There's a new catagory: Guilty of being in the 99%.

[gopiscrap]

3. This is not a one time thing

most cops are like that when they think they can't getr caught....it's just that in this case there were too many witnesses and too much media coverage...this cop should have been convicted of 2nd degree murder, but because he's a cop, he's gonna skate!