Jury Deadlocked in Trial for the Murder of Walter Scott

The jurors in the murder trial of the former South Carolina police officer who shot a fleeing Walter Scott in the back, are deadlocked. According to reports, the jury told a judge on Friday that they were unable to reach a verdict.

If you recall, on April 4, 2015, Walter Scott was shot and killed in North Charleston, South Carolina following a traffic stop for a brake light. Officer Slager pulled Walter Scott over in the parking lot of an auto parts store around 9:30 a.m., after the initial interaction between the two, Scott got out of his car and fled on foot.

Slager chased after him and the two ended up in a physical altercation. Afterwards, the officer pulled out his taser. The series of events that occurred after the taser was deployed vary between the officer’s incident report and the eyewitness, who recorded the shooting on his cell phone.

In the video, Scott is seen running away from Slager. Scott runs approximately 15 to 20 feet away from Slager before he shoots Scott in the back five times. Afterwards, Slager approached Scott’s limp body and instructed him to put his hands behind his back. Slater then, handcuffed Scott, leaving him face down on the ground. He then ran back towards the area where the initial scuffle took place, picked up an object and dropped it beside Scott’s body.

Slager was indicted on a charge of murder in June of that same year. The trial began in October.

The jurors have reportedly been deliberating for three days, but it seems they can not come to an agreement. In the event that the jurors remain deadlocked the Judge will have to declare a mistrial and retry the case with a new jury, reports state. As a result of the jury’s indecisiveness, the judge told them that they had a duty “to make every reasonable effort to reach a unanimous verdict.”