NO JUSTICE! Oscar Grant Killer Cop Gets 2-Year Sentence

Wow! Johannes Mehserle, the Oakland public transit officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant III on January 1st, 2009 has been sentenced to two measly years for the unarmed fatal shooting of a Black man by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. Mehserle had previously been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter this summer but could have received a maximum of 14 years with a gun enhancement.

Judge Robert Perry threw out the sentence enhancement due to the commission of  a crime using a gun by calling the incident "an accidental shooting" AND gave Mehserle credit for time served so far, so that the killer cop could be released in 219 days.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

After the sentencing was announced, Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson, emerged from the courtroom muttering, "Nothing, he got nothing!" The family declined to talk to reporters.

About 50 Grant supporters lined up in front of the courthouse chanting, "Mehserle is guilty, guilty. The whole damn system is guilty, guilty."

In downtown Oakland, where a memorial was being set up for his grandson, Oscar Grant Sr., 65, said, “It’s a bad decision. No time can bring [Oscar] back. But [Mehserle] should have served some time. Otherwise, they’re telling the public, though he went to trial, a policeman can shoot someone and go free. These guys have a license to kill.”

But the elder Grant discouraged violent protests.

We'll see! This is really a sickening situation, especially since the original incident where Mehserle shot and killed Grant in the back while he was lying face down on the ground was captured on video!

Mehserle Found Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter

2 to 4 years in jail for killing a Black man. 28-year-old Johannes Mehserle was found guilty (by a jury with no Black members) of involuntary manslaughter for shooting Oscar Grant.

Alameda County Deputy Dist. Atty. David R. Stein rejected the idea that the shooting was a mistake, telling jurors that Mehserle's holster was specially designed to prevent easy release of his firearm. The prosecutor contrasted the light, bright yellow Taser gun with the heavier black Sig Sauer handgun that Mehserle fired.

"He let his aggression dictate his conduct," Stein told jurors.

The prosecutor urged jurors to find Mehserle guilty of second-degree murder, pointing out that the officer never told his colleagues that night that the shooting was an accident.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles have not won a murder conviction in a police shooting case since 1983.

Oscar Grant Killer Mehserle Testifies In His Own Defense

The murder trial of Johannes Mehserle, the white BART police officer who shot Oscar Grant to death in the back while the black man was laying on his stomach, continued last week with Mehserle testifying in his own defense.

Sobbing as he testified, a former Bay Area transit officer for the first time offered his account of how he shot and killed a 22-year-old passenger, saying he mistakenly pulled out his handgun instead of an electronic stun gun and fired a single shot before realizing his mistake.

Johannes Mehserle, 28, testified that he was having trouble handcuffing Oscar Grant III and only intended to use the stun gun to make the man comply with his orders.

"I didn't think I had my gun," he testified. "I remember the pop. It wasn't very loud, it wasn't like a gunshot, and I remember wondering what went wrong with the Taser.

"I remember looking to my right side and seeing my gun in my right hand," he said of his .40-caliber pistol. "I didn't know what to think. I just thought it shouldn't have been there."

Mehserle said he looked down at Grant, who was lying on the floor of the Bay Area Rapid Transit station platform. "Mr. Grant said, 'You shot me,' " Mehserle testified.

One member of the audience was not impressed by Mehserle's tears. Timothy Killings, 24, shouted "You should save those [...] tears, dude" and Grant family members applauded.

The jury does not have a single African-American on it, despite Los Angeles County being 10% Black and the person killed was African-American. The trial was moved from Alameda County to Los Angeles County due to concerns about pre-trial publicity influencing the Northern California jury pool.

Oscar Grant Trial Starts In Los Angeles

MadProfessah has been following the case of Oscar Grant closely since it became public in January 1, 2009. On that day a 27-year-old Bay Area Rapid Transit cop named Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old father of two in the back while Grant was face down on the ground being arrested by Mehserle. The shooting was captured by multiple cell-phone videos and the horrific incident became an internet sensation. Because of pre-trial publicity, the murder trial of Mehserle was moved from Alameda County to Los Angeles County and began last week.

Police Officer Who Killed Oscar Grant To Be Tried For Murder

Oscar Grant was an African American, 22-year-old father of two who was shot to death by a BART police officer named Johannes Mehserle in the wee hours of January 1, 2009. The killing was caught on video and was a cause celebre earlier this year. The Barbara Jordan/Bayard Rustin Coalition (a Black LGBT organization that MadProfessah is the board president of) organized a candlelight vigil in Liemert Park in support of justice being done for the man who shot a Black man at point blank range in full view of hundreds of other people for no apparent reason.

Today comes word that Mehserle will be tried for murder in the Oscar Grant case and the defense's motion for a change of venue was denied:

After listening to seven days of testimony, Judge C. Don Clay concluded that Mehserle hadn't gotten his stun gun and his service pistol mixed up when he shot Oscar Grant in the back at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland early New Year's Day.

"There's no doubt in my mind," Clay said at the close of the former officer's preliminary hearing in Oakland, "that Mr. Mehserle intended to shoot Oscar Grant with a gun and not a Taser."

The decision set up the first murder trial of a California peace officer for a line-of-duty killing in nearly 15 years. It prompted sobs of relief from Grant's family members, who spoke of having a sense of justice restored.

"This is going to be huge for people of color," Cephus Johnson, Grant's uncle, said outside court. "The community lacks faith in the judicial system when it comes to police officers.

Go and read the entire coverage of the preliminary trial in the San Francisco Chronicle. It looks like there will be many, many people following this case very carefully.