(Editor’s note: This is the fourth article in a series of stories surrounding the criminal trial of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle. Mehserle stood trial after shooting and mortally wounding Oscar Grant, an unarmed black man.)
Officer Verdict Bring Out Strong Emotions
By Dennis J. Freeman
Los Angeles-The news of the verdict in the criminal trial of former Bay Area Rapid Transit Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed an unarmed black man, hit Tracie Cooper and her son, Michael Greer, like a ton of bricks: involuntary manslaughter.
Greer was one of the young men on the Fruitvale BART Station in Oakland, California, with Oscar Grant, the morning the 22-year-old father was shot in the back by Mehserle on New Year’s Day, 2009. That situation has left Greer, who was friends with Grant, devastated. The involuntary manslaughter conviction left the Cooper and her son emotionally drained.
“I was very angry with the verdict,” said Cooper by phone from Oakland. “I feel that all of our black men are third-class citizens in the United States. My son…he cried. He was very disturbed.”
Jury selection in a racially-driven criminal or civil case involving a white police officer and an African American man has always been controversial. Following the non-black jury involuntary manslaughter conviction of Mehserle the issue has become a lot thornier.
None of the individuals on the jury or jury alternates that were picked were black. Prior to the verdict, which came down last week at the end of the day on Thursday, the family of Grant have been measured in their words in describing the jury pool. That is no longer the case.
According to a courthouse source, five of the jurors have ties to law enforcement, with three having family members or are relatives to peace officers. The other two have favorable ties to police officers. The last five African Americans considered for jury slots were removed by the judge (Robert Perry) handling the case. Grant’s family and friends believe the jury makeup had a lot to do with the verdict outcome.
“The jury selection was bad,” said Cephus Johnson, Grant’s uncle. “Deliberations were too quick.”
As a result of the verdict, the city of Oakland went into chaos mode as hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets last Thursday to make their voices heard. Grant was shot in the back as he laid facedown, unarmed.
The shooting, which was videotaped by a cell phone, has brought worldwide interest to the case, which was moved from Oakland to Los Angeles amid concerns that the jury pool could be compromised and that Mehserle would not receive a fair trial. Johnson doesn’t feel his nephew received a fair trial. The jury’s verdict doesn’t reflect the facts of the case, Johnson said.
“There was no consideration of life for Oscar,” Johnson said in reference to Mehserle shooting his nephew. “It’s a slap in the face with this verdict. There is no value put on our life when it comes to white police officers and African American men. Mehserle committed murder. What we see in that video was murder taking place.”
Jack Bryson, whose son, Jack Bryson Jr., was on the podium with Grant when he was shot, said the jury makeup in this trial turned the tide in favor of Mehserle.
“If you’re a black man or a black woman…if you get pulled over by a police officer, you’re excluded from the jury,” Bryson said. “It’s like if you’ve been arrested, you can’t get a job because you’re a felon. People keep wondering why you can’t get black people on the jury. Well, that’s because you exclude them. If you’re white, and your family members are police officers or you have relatives who are police officers, you are red-carpeted to the jury pool.”
The mood outside of the downtown Los Angeles courtroom was subdued. Demonstrators who showed up was boisterous at times, but was largely peaceful. Another demonstration, at Leimert Park, an African American enclave in South Los Angeles, followed suit, unlike the city of Oakland, which made at least 50 arrests, according to published reports.
Family attorney John Burris said the jury’s quick rush to justice didn’t register with what the family was seeking.
“The family is extremely disappointed in this verdict,” Burris said. “It is not a true representative of the facts. The facts here support a murder conviction. Involuntary manslaughter is the lowest form of conviction you can have. It’s almost like Mehserle got off, because he is not being punished for what he did. It is a compromised verdict. We’re very unhappy.
“Their (jury) minds were sort of made up; it’s easy to make up your mind in a case like this because the video was there. This case turned on the video, plus Mehserle. Once Mehserle testified and gave his statement, then you have the video…that’s where the case was. All this other stuff didn’t matter.”
Mehserle, who was led away in handcuffs, will have a November sentencing hearing. At that time the family will present to the judge a impact statement, which could lead Judge Robert Perry to hand down a stiffer sentence to Mehserle.
“I’m hurt,” said Johnson. “The verdict is not what we wanted. Mehserle should have been convicted of second degree murder.”
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com