Thanks Wiz.
Looks like NBC got their 'facts' from
https://www.bgsu.edu/content/dam/BG...icers-Charged-with-Murder-or-Manslaughter.pdf but, in typical media fashion, chose not to disclose
all the details. To whit:-
"Since the beginning of 2005 (through June 24, 2019), there have been 104 nonfederal sworn law enforcement officers with the general powers of arrest (e.g., police officers, deputy sheriffs, state troopers, etc.) who have been arrested for murder or manslaughter resulting from an on-duty shooting where the officer shot and killed someone at incidents throughout the United States. Of those
104 officers, to date only
35 have been convicted of a crime resulting from the on-duty shooting (15 by guilty plea, 20 by jury trial, and none convicted by a bench trial)."
But perhaps more importantly...
"In the cases where an officer has been convicted, it is often for a lesser offense. Only 4 officers have been convicted of murder (there were four officers whose murder convictions were overturned, but the officers were later convicted of federal crimes arising out of the same incident). The 4 officers convicted of murder received incarceration sentences that ranged from 81 months to 192 months in prison, with an average length prison sentence of 150.75 months. As to the other officers, 9 were convicted of manslaughter, 4 were convicted of voluntary manslaughter, 5 were convicted of involuntary manslaughter, 2 were convicted of official misconduct, 2 were convicted of reckless homicide, 3 were convicted of negligent homicide, 5 were convicted of federal criminal deprivation of civil rights (including the four officers whose murder convictions were overturned), and one was convicted of reckless discharge of a firearm. The 18 officers convicted of manslaughter received incarceration sentences that
ranged from zero months to 480 months in prison, with an average sentence of 78.5 months in prison. The criminal cases for 45 of the officers ended in a non-conviction:
23 were acquitted at a jury trial, 9 were acquitted at a bench trial, 4 were dismissed by a judge, 7 were dismissed by a prosecutor, one received a deferred adjudication, and in one instance no true bill was returned from a grand jury"
Bold font is my doing. Again, happy to be proved wrong, but it seems that 42 out of 104, were acquitted by jury, 2 ended in nothing and the remaining 58 went to jail. So 55% of cops accused of killing civilians were found guilty. This then does not gel with "Those cops probably will be acquitted. That is the statistics in police murder charges while on duty". Most probably the cop will be guilty of manslaughter.
Thanks for pulling out that NBC link though.
