Former Police Officer Michael Slager on Trial for Killing Walter Scott
On April 4, 2015, in North Charleston, South Carolina, at approximately 9:30 a.m., Walter Scott was pulled over for a non-functioning brake-light. At some point, Walter got out of his car and ran. He was pursued by police officer Michael Slager. The situation ended with Slager shooting 50-year old Walter 5 times in the back as Walter ran away from him.
A by-stander recorded the portion of the incident where Walter ran, Slager fired his gun, and then picked up a taser and placed it by Walter’s body. Slager’s defense centered around the taser. He alleged that Walter used the taser on him and was coming towards him, causing him to shoot Walter. Slager’s original lawyer, David Aylor, withdrew as counsel within hours of the release of the video.
In June 2016, Slager was indicted for murder by a grand jury.
On May 11, 2016, Slager was indicted on federal charges of violating Scott’s civil rights and unlawfully using a weapon during the commission of a crime. In addition, he was charged with obstruction of justice as a result of his statement to state investigators that Scott was moving toward him with the Taser when he shot him.
This week, a jury was selected in the State murder case. The 12-member jury consists of 6 White men, 5 White women, and 1 Black man.
USA Today is providing live coverage.
Opening Statements
November 3, 2016, Trial, Part 1
We’ll keep updates in the comment section below.
Posted on 11/03/2016, in Cases, Cops Gone Wild, Trial Videos, Walter Scott and tagged Michael Slager, murder, South Carolina, state, trial, Walter Scott. Bookmark the permalink. 72 Comments.
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident 
November 3, 2016 Part 2
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“They will not address the public until trial is over.”
This is called taking the high road.
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November 3, 2016, Part 3
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November 3, 2016, Part 4
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Anyone else (other than a cop) facing similar charges that were also substantiated by such a damning video would have begged for a plea deal. Actually, anyone else would have been denied bail and sitting in a jail cell. Imo: The fact that Slater entered a plea of not guilty testifies to his and his counsel’s belief that he’s actually going to get away with murder. It would also come as no surprise to me if eleven of the twelve jurors (assuming his attorney is worth his salt) are comprised of goat-heads, sisters and daughters of the confederacy and transplants from sundown towns similar to the one Slater grew up in. One Black juror? That’s the southern recipe for a deadlocked jury. That said, there’s not a single piece of (new) evidence his defense counsel can introduce that mitigates what I, and anyone who has ever seen a dirty cop movie, witnessed in the video. It was a cold blooded execution carried out with extreme prejudice. The only person Michael Slater could have justifiably shot and killed in self-defense that day, at that moment, would have been himself.
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Yep. “The fact that Slater entered a plea of not guilty testifies to his and his counsel’s belief that he’s actually going to get away with murder.”
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Let’s hope Walter Slager as well as Tensing are convicted on all the charges. Slager and Dubose were unarmed and non threatening. Those are reasons enough for a conviction. Since you have posted stories of police officers being convicted of killings let these 2 follow.
On another note a couple of days ago.Scott Michael Greene a white male ambushed 2 cops in Iowa. He was taken alive. What is amazing is the people that run the Blue Lives Matter website are upset on how other news outlets didn’t give this the coverage it deserved. Blue Lives matter does exactly the same thing. The reason all media outlets do this is simple: Keep up this false War on Cops by black men ONLY narrative. Even though most cop killers are white males like Scott Michael Greene all media outlets(Blue Lives Matter included) purposely downplay white cop killers. Some sites have never reported on a cop killed by a white cop killer,but these same sites say ” We support police”. When you engage in racial double standards on how police deaths are reported, this is the result.
Let’s see if Blue Lives Matter leads the way in equal reporting now that they want other media outlets to.
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Chuquest,
Your contributions here are valuable. Thank you so much. I had read about 2 cops in Iowa being killed “execution style.” I was looking for the publication of their funerals so I could blog it, but got sidetracked with the jury selections and trials. Eventually, there should be something published about the arraignment of the perpetrator, maybe how he pleas and/or trial or sentencing.
Thanks so much for sharing how Blue Lives matter thinks that the media didn’t give the killings the attention it deserved. Your assessment as to why is RIGHT ON!
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He has a Trump sign in his front yard
http://heavy.com/news/2016/11/scott-michael-greene-des-moines-urbandale-iowa-police-shooter-gunman-suspect-photos-pictures-facebook-motive-military-criminal-record/
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Mindyme,
Why does that not surprise me? 🙂
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November 4, 2016, Part 1
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The man who shot the cell phone video testified in Part 1. He explains how hard it was to trust who to get the video to, and what he went through to get the video to the Scott family..
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November 4, 2016, Part 2
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watching this now the defense lawyer is pure scum and not very bright
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Hey there, Bill! What defense can Slager’s lawyers possibly raise? They tried to have the video tossed out at trial. That failed. What the prosecutors need to do is keep reminding the jury that Slager shot Walter in the back. An unarmed man running away is not a threat.
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In Part 2, you will hear Slager’s defense attorney on cross. The judge corrected him for making statements and then answering the statements without giving the witness opportunity to answer.
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If you get a chance, please watch Part 2. Slager’s defense attorney was stumped several times.
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This is great, I’ll have to finish watching when I get home this evening! Thank you
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Hey Mindyme! Have a safe and wonderful day.
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Thank you! I hope you had / have a wonderful day.
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November 4, 2016, Part 3
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So much ‘fluff’ they are discussing as if any of this had something to do with Slager’s actions. UGH
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November 4, 2016, Part 4
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I enjoyed this video. The guy is entertaining as he argues for the prosecution of Michael Slager.
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Feiden Santana used his cellphone to video the killing of Walter Scott. It led to Slager’s arrest. The defense presented two motions to the judge. One was to prevent the state from showing Santana’s video at trial. The other was to prevent the video from being shown in slow motion. Judge Clifton Newman denied both motions.
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Watch starting at 55:22 defense opening statements trying to let the jury in on some secret. something that may or not be true and something he knew he wasn’t supposed to say. And they all knew he wasn’t supposed to say it. I rewound it 5X trying to watch if the defense attny did it in a way that gave time for the prosecution to object, yet ensured the jury kinda got the message anyway.
But before that he was telling the jury the problem is “this is Walter’s lifestyle…why didn’t Walter have proper respect for this ‘1st responder?'”
SMH. As if Slager, deserves ‘respect’ after we watch him literally shoot an unarmed man in the back!! And then stage the scene! And then LIE to EVERYONE! Knowing the man he just murdered would never be able to tell his side.
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If Slager had any honor or integrity he would have pled guilty.
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…and if a frog had a glass behind, it would not hop!!!
Slager is a worthless piece of crap!!!
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Major kudos to Feiden Santana for being courageous enough to: —film this grave injustice, and — to be audacious enough to turn the video over!!! Without him, this worthless ex-cop Slager (I hate to even say his name) would probably be somewhere doing the same type of misdeed to some other innocent citizen. Slager,like Trump, is out to MAKE AMERICA HATE AGAIN!!!
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I agree, Feiden is very brave.
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And here is what the witness video disputes:
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November 7, 2016, Part 1
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November 7, 2016, Part 2
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November 7, 2016, Part 3
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November 7, 2016, Part 4
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November8 , 2016, Part 1
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November 8, 2016, Part 2
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November 8, 2016, Part 3.
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November 8, 2016, Part 4
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There are more videos of today’s trial. Today’s hearing began with the judge discussing a complaint from defense attorneys that some evidence was not tested. The defense argued that the Taser wasn’t fully tested to determine specifically where on the Taser Slager’s and Scott’s DNA was deposited. Johnson acknowledged Wednesday that SLED was able to confirm only that both men left DNA somewhere on the weapon.
Tuesday, Almon Brown, a state crime scene investigator, testified that he was concerned when he examined Scott’s body because what he saw didn’t match what he had been told about how Scott died. The wounds being in the back and side contradicted what Slager said about Scott taking his Taser and trying to use it on him when he fired on Scott.
Slager’s defense team appears to want to argue that had testing proved where Scott’s DNA was on the taser,that it could circumvent that Scott was shot in the back while running from Slager.
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so the defense is trying to establish from the taser that the video and autopsy are both WRONG????? as i wrote earlier the defense lawyer is an IDIOT…….
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November 9, 2016, Part 1
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November 9, 2016, Part 2
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November 9, 2016, Part 3
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November 9, 2016, Part 4
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November 9, 2016, Part 5
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November 9, 2016, Part 6
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November 9, 2016, Part 7
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I’m getting an error message, will keep trying to play this
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Mindyme,
You mean the video of Part7? I just played it. Let me know if it works for you.
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Because Friday is a federal holiday, there will be no trial.
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November 10, 2016, Part 1
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November 10, 2016, Part 2
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November 10, 2016, Part 3
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November 10, 2016, Part 4
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November 10, 2016, Part 5
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November 10, 2016, Part 6
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DNA was a focus of Thursday’s hearings.
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division DNA expert Samuel Stewart testified that Slagler’s DNA was not found on Scott’s fingernail, casting doubt on the extent of a physical struggle. The DNA found on the taser was a mixture of both Scott and Slager’s,and at least one source not belonging to either.
The defense has taken a position that Scott was a major contributor to the DNA on the taser, but Stewart testified that there was not enough DNA to reach a scientific threshold to qualify either as major contributor.
In spite of Stewart’s testimony, Slager’s defense tried to trip him up;
“You can still tell [Scott] contributed more than the other, correct?” one of Slager’s defense attorneys asked .
“Not necessarily,” Stewart said.
Also this week, , several police officers testified saying they believed Slager and Scott were in a physical altercation. When one police witness was asked by the prosecution about whether Scott running away was de-escalating the situation, the witness agreed.
“Through the video,” he said. “I would say [Scott] was de-escalating.”
Chief Deputy Solicitor Bruce DuRant asked the same witness about Slager’s police training.
“Was he trained by the North Charleston Police Department to shoot someone in the back while he’s running away?” Chief Deputy Solicitor Bruce DuRant asked.
“No, sir,” the witness replied.
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If you don’t want the trip down memory lane on what happened the day the video came out, four days after Scott’s murder, you can go straight to about 16:40.
Joy Reid explains the Supreme Court case about shooting someone fleeing.
Sounds like this is even more of an open & shut straight up murder.
Scott was not a fleeing felon nor a danger to anyone. ( notwithstanding the usual murder justification based on police premonitions (AKA Bigivoyance) about the criminality of black men.
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There were no hearings from November 11th through the 13th.
November 14, 2016 – Part 1
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November 14, 2016 – Part 2
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November 14, 2016 – Part 3
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November 14, 2016 – Part 4
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November 14, 2016 – Part 5
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