King County Washington deputy Paul Schene’s trial on misdemeanor assault charges for the videotaped beating of 15-year-old Malika Calhoun has resulted in a hung jury today and the judge has called a mistrial.
Surprised?
I wasn’t, I’m sorry to say… and you wouldn’t be either if you were a long-time reader. I remarked on my worries about this case, and any other case against police officers, from the start based on similar recent trials where, despite compelling testimony and evidence, King County juries refused to convict police officers accused of excessive force.
Of course, you don’t have to look much further than the article I put up earlier today showing how difficult it is to prosecute and convict a police officer for criminal excessive force in general. On-duty assault cases tend to be the most difficult to bring against law enforcement officers because they are so easy to defend by suggesting that, no matter how bad the beating is, it was all a matter of training and was justified by the smallest flinch or perceived threat… including a soft-soled tennis shoe flung off the foot of a petulant child.
While prosecutors say they are asking for a retrial, and some may be encouraged that 11 of the 12 jurors voted to convict Schene. I’m still not very confident that the results will be any better next time, again based on the history of trials against police officers here in Seattle Washington, where there’s now one more case to add to that chain of accountability failures.
The trial date for a retrial has been tentatively set for June 1, 2010.
-Edited 01/22/10 for brevity
Paul Schene Trial Ends In Hung Jury, Surprised? is a post from PoliceMisconduct.net