Posted August 22, 2015 10:00 am by Comments

By Bob Owens

A North Carolina judge declared a mistrial in the homicide case of Charlotte police officer Randall Kerrick, who had been accused of using excessive lethal force after he was charged by a former college football player in late 2013.

Two years after a deadly struggle in the dark of night and three weeks into an emotionally charged trial, jurors said Friday they were hopelessly deadlocked, an outcome that satisfied neither side in the polarizing case of a white police officer charged with killing an unarmed black man.

The jury was unable to unanimously decide whether Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Randall “Wes” Kerrick used excessive force in firing 12 shots at Jonathan Ferrell, who charged at him moments after police encountered him walking near a neighborhood pool.

Eight jurors were for acquittal and four for conviction, according to someone close to the proceedings.

Within moments of the mistrial, about a dozen protesters, whites and blacks, lay down with hands behind their backs and blocked traffic outside the courthouse on Fourth Street, chanting “No justice, no peace.”

Like so many people, I’d been suckered by early media misreporting of the “facts” of the story, which painted the picture of a wounded accident victim being callously gunned …read more

Source:: Bearing Arms

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