An S.C. police officer headed for jail is a rarity
Unlike the case that unfolded in Charleston this week, convictions of police officers after questionable shootings are almost unheard of, even in the rare circumstances in which prosecutors file criminal charges.
As public attention has become focused on officer-involved shootings – often because of bystander videos that capture confrontations – South Carolina the past two years has had more officers facing juries than in the past. But very few of those officers are convicted.
On Tuesday, however, former North Charleston policeman Michael Slager pleaded guilty to federal civil rights violations and appears headed to prison. That’s after a state jury in December failed to reach a verdict on the murder charge in Slager’s shooting of Walter Scott, an unarmed African-American driver who was running from Slager after a traffic stop.
Part of Slager’s plea deal included dropping the state murder charge as well as the prospect of a second state murder trial. Slager faces up to life in federal prison on the civil rights violation. Prosecutors are recommending that he serve decades.
Just last week, a state prosecutor decided that three Sumter officers who fired 23 shots at a suspect who was running from them were justified in their use of force. Nineteen bullets struck Waltki Williams, mostly in the back, evidence showed.
There have been 19 officer-involved shootings this year statewide as of Wednesday, which is ahead of 2016’s pace, when the year-end total reached 41, according to figures from the State Law Enforcement Division.
In recent years, besides Slager, only ex-Highway Patrol trooper Sean Groubert has been convicted of, or pleaded guilty to, the original charge filed against him. After pleading guilty more than a year ago to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, Groubert has yet to be sentenced in the shooting of motorist Levar Jones in Columbia in September 2014.
Two officers, one the former police chief in the Orangeburg County town of Eutawville, the other a North Augusta policeman, have pleaded guilty to lesser charges after juries balked at more serious offenses sought by prosecutors.
Former Eutawville chief Richard Combs received a suspended sentence after agreeing to plead to misconduct in office in the May 2011 fatal shooting of Bernard Bailey, an unarmed African-American man.
Ex-North Augusta officer Justin Craven was placed on probation and ordered to do community service after pleading guilty to misdemeanor misconduct in the February 2014 killing of Earnest Satterwhite, also an unarmed black driver who was shot to death in his driveway. A grand jury rejected a voluntary manslaughter charge sought by a prosecutor.
Defense attorneys say conviction of officers almost never happens in the Palmetto State or elsewhere in the United States.
About 1,000 people are killed annually in police confrontations across the United States, Bowling Green State University professor of criminal justice Philip Stinson told the Wall Street Journal. By his tally, 18 officers were charged with murder or manslaughter in 2015.
In South Carolina, law enforcement officers fired their weapons at 209 suspects in the five-year period from 2010 through 2014, The State newspaper reported in March 2015.
The shootings killed 89 suspects and injured 86, police data analyzed by the newspaper showed. At least four officers were killed and at least 32 injured in those confrontations.
The newspaper’s findings for those five years also included that:
▪ Of the Top 5 counties where officer-involved shootings occurred, three are clustered along the Upstate I-85 corridor. Those counties were Greenville, with 23 shootings; Anderson, with 15; and Spartanburg, with 13 shootings.
▪ At least 102 African-Americans were shot or shot at, and at least 68 whites met the same fate. However, the newspaper could not determine racial information in the shootings of 34 suspects. In the unlikely event that all 34 are white, the racial breakdown would be equal.
▪ The average number of suspects shot annually during those five years was 42.
Separate from those findings, SLED figures show there were 550 officer-involved shootings between 2000 and 2014.
Officer-involved shootings across the United States
A snapshot by the Associated Press of high-profile killings by police across the nation includes:
JORDAN EDWARDS
The 15-year-old African-American was fatally shot Saturday by a suburban Dallas police officer while a passenger in a car that was moving away, not in reverse, toward officers. Chief Jonathan Haber said Monday that police video contradicts his department’s original statement about the high school freshman’s killing by officers investigating an underage drinking complaint at a house party Edwards was leaving. The boy’s family wants the officer fired and criminally charged, their lawyer said.
ERIC GARNER
The 43-year-old black man died in July 2014 in New York City after a white officer placed him in a chokehold during an arrest for selling loose cigarettes. His gasps of “I can’t breathe” have become a rallying cry for police critics. A grand jury declined to indict the officer nor any others involved in the arrest.
MICHAEL BROWN
The 18-year-old black man was fatally shot by a white officer, Darren Wilson, in August 2014 in Ferguson, Mo. A grand jury declined to indict Wilson, and the U.S. Justice Department opted against civil rights charges. Wilson later resigned. The death of Brown, who was unarmed, led to months of sometimes violent protests and became a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement, which criticizes police treatment of minorities.
AKAI GURLEY
Rookie New York City police officer Peter Liang was convicted of manslaughter last year in the November 2014 death of the 28-year-old Gurley. Liang, an American of Chinese descent, said he was patrolling a public housing high-rise with his gun drawn when a sound startled him and he fired accidentally. A bullet ricocheted off a wall, hitting Gurley. A judge reduced the conviction to negligent homicide and gave Liang five years’ probation and 800 hours of community service.
TAMIR RICE
Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was fatally shot by a white Cleveland police officer near a gazebo in a recreational area in November 2014. Officers were responding to a report of a man waving a gun. The boy had a pellet gun tucked in his waistband and was shot right after their cruiser skidded to a stop, just feet away. A grand jury in December 2015 declined to indict patrolman Timothy Loehmann, who fired the fatal shot, and training officer Frank Garmback.
FREDDIE GRAY
The 25-year-old man was shackled but alive when he was put in a Baltimore police van in April 2015. He came out with severe neck injuries, and his subsequent death led to rioting. Six officers were charged initially, but prosecutors in July dropped all remaining charges after acquittals and a hung jury.
ERIC HARRIS
Former Tulsa County volunteer sheriff’s deputy Robert Bates, 74, was sentenced in June to four years in prison for second-degree manslaughter in the April 2015 death of Harris, 44, a black man who was unarmed and restrained. Bates, who is white, has said he confused his stun gun with his handgun. Bates is appealing his conviction.
WILLIAM CHAPMAN II
Former Portsmouth, Va., police officer Stephen Rankin was sentenced in October to 2 1 / 2 years in prison for fatally shooting this unarmed, handcuffed 18-year-old while responding to a shoplifting call outside a Wal-Mart in April 2015. Prosecutors allege Rankin killed Chapman “willfully, deliberately and with premeditation.” Some witnesses said Chapman was combative, and one said he knocked away Rankin’s stun gun.
SAM DUBOSE
Prosecutors plan to retry former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing this month in the killing of an unarmed black motorist during a traffic stop near the campus in July 2015. The jury deadlocked after his first murder trial. Tensing’s body camera captured much of the encounter, although the two sides dispute what conclusions can be reached.
JEREMY MCDOLE
McDole, 28, was sitting in his wheelchair when he was shot and killed in September 2015 in Wilmington, Del., after police received a 911 call about a man with a gun. A bystander’s cellphone footage showed officers repeatedly telling McDole to drop his weapon and raise his hands, with McDole reaching for his waist area before shots erupted. The Delaware attorney general’s office decided against criminal charges against the four officers involved, although investigators concluded one showed “extraordinarily poor” police work.
PHILANDO CASTILE
Castile was shot and killed July 6 by officer Jeronimo Yanez, who is Hispanic, after being pulled over as he drove through a suburb of St. Paul, Minn., with his girlfriend and her young daughter in the car. Livestreaming on Facebook moments later, his girlfriend said Castile, 32, was shot while reaching for his ID after telling the officer he had a gun permit and was armed. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi concluded that Yanez wasn’t justified in using deadly force. Yanez is charged with manslaughter and is free ahead of his trial, scheduled to start later this month.
This story was originally published May 3, 2017 at 8:02 PM with the headline "An S.C. police officer headed for jail is a rarity."