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Jury deliberations postponed in racially charged murder trial
By: cnn.comPosted On: 07/06/2010 4:18 P
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Jury deliberations in a racially charged murder trial of a white former transit police officer accused of killing an unarmed black man al in Oakland, California, were postponed Tuesday because of a sick juror.
Jury deliberations in a racially charged murder trial of a white former transit police officer accused of killing an unarmed black man al in Oakland, California, were postponed Tuesday because of a sick juror.
The deliberations are expected to resume Wednesday morning in the case, according to the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Jurors deliberated for nearly three hours Friday afternoon without reaching a verdict in the case against Johannes Mehserle. Court was closed Monday due to the extended holiday weekend.
Mehserle is accused of fatally shooting 22-year-old Oscar Grant on a California train platform on January 1, 2009. Mehserle was a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer at the time.
He could be found not guilty, guilty of murder, or guilty of a lesser offense, such as manslaughter.
The shooting was captured on a bystander's cell phone video camera. The video was widely circulated on the internet and on news broadcasts, and it spurred several protests and riots in and around Oakland.
The trial was moved from Alameda County to Los Angeles due to pretrial publicity.
Bay Area Rapid Transit police were called to Oakland's Fruitvale station after passengers complained about fights on a train. Officers pulled several men, including Grant, off the train when it arrived.
The video showed Mehserle pulling his gun and fatally shooting Grant in the back as another officer knelt on the unarmed man. Mehserle said at the trial that he intended to draw and fire his Taser rather than his gun.
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