Thursday, July 8, 2010

Mesherle Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter

I'll write more about this later, but as you have no doubt already seen, former Oakland, Ca. BART Officer Johannes Mesherle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of the unarmed African-American Oscar Grant on New Year's day 2009.  Mesherle killed Grant during a confrontation videotaped by witnesses.  Mesherle was charged with murder and today's conviction on this lesser included offense seems like precisely the right outcome based on the evidence featured in media accounts of the trial.  As I said there is so much more to be said, and some extremely important lessons about the recklessness of law enforcement in their overuse of force.  In this case, Mesherle claimed that he mistakenly reached and intended to fire a TASER when he fired his firearm by mistake.  What a terrible tragedy for everyone especially the Oscar Grant family. 

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