Prosecutor Joe Deters said he will not put a white former University of Cincinnati police officer on trial for a third time in the killing of a black motorist
Do you remember Sam DuBose?
Back in 2015, during a routine traffic stop, a white police officer who was wearing a Confederate flag T-shirt under his uniform shot unarmed African-American Sam DuBose in the head and killed him. The officer claimed that DuBose almost ran him over and that “he was being dragged by the vehicle and had to fire his weapon,” but video from the officer’s body camera showed this was false. He was fired. Despite this, two separate juries--both predominantly white (10-2 and 9-3)--failed to reach a verdict.
There will be no third jury.
“Before dropping the case, [prosecutor Joe] Deters said he heard in discussions with both black and white jurors from the first two Tensing trials that he could ‘never’ get a conviction. ... Deters said he thought his prosecutors made a strong case on the murder and voluntary manslaughter charges but they could not break though biases -- racial and pro-police -- among the jurors. ‘The division in this country is profound ... In this case we had jurors who would not vote to convict a police officer.’”
The officer, meanwhile, is demanding his job back.
