Judge acquits Chicago cop in fatal off-duty shooting, sparking anger
Some background:
On a warm night in 2012, Rekiya Boyd was shot in the back of the head while standing with friends in Douglas Park on the city’s West Side. Servin had been in a verbal altercation with Boyd’s group before he fired on them from his car, striking one man in the hand and fatally hitting Boyd.
"You’re sworn to protect lives. Not take them away,” Boyd’s 32-year-old brother Martinez Sutton told The Huffington Post Monday, before the verdict was read. “[The police] don’t think about the family they’re destroying in the process."
Though roughly 30 percent of Chicago’s population is black, they make up about 80 percent of police shooting victims, Reuters reports.
Boyd’s family has already been awarded a $4.5 million wrongful death settlement by the City of Chicago, but Sutton said true justice will be served when officers like Servin face the same punishment as civilians who commit the same crime.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/20/rekia-boyd-trial_n_7101322.html
Today:
In a stunning, abrupt end to the first trial in years of a Chicago police officer for a fatal off-duty shooting, a Cook County judge acquitted the veteran cop Monday on a legal fine point, drawing outrage from the black victim's family and leaders in the African-American community.
Judge Dennis Porter ruled that prosecutors failed to prove that Dante Servin acted recklessly, saying that Illinois courts have consistently held that anytime an individual points a gun at an intended victim and shoots, it is an intentional act, not a reckless one. He all but said prosecutors should have charged Servin with murder, not involuntary manslaughter.
Servin cannot be retried on a murder charge because of double-jeopardy protections, according to his attorney, Darren O'Brien.
A chaotic scene erupted in the courtroom after the brother of the victim, Rekia Boyd, reacted to Servin's acquittal by standing and taking a few steps toward Servin, angrily shouting, "This (expletive) killed my sister." Family, supporters and sheriff's deputies quickly pulled Martinez Sutton from the courtoom amid shouts and cries over the ruling.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-police-detective-manslaughter-trial-0421-met-20150420-story.html#page=1
= new reply since forum marked as read
And the guy walks free.
The cop admits he was shooting over his shoulder trying to hit someone else when he mistakenly hits the victim in the back of the head and kills her.
The state charges involuntary manslaughter.
The judge lets him walk because, according to the state Supreme Court, all shootings are intentional and therefore can't be involuntary reckless acts.
Do I have this right?
