(snip)
Between the Chauvin trial and the Potter trial, meanwhile, came a stormy local election wholly dominated by a proposal to revolutionize policing in Minneapolis and accompanied by a historic wave of violence and brazen crime innovations — carjacking, flash mob shoplifting — washing across urban and suburban landscapes. By year's end, from San Francisco to New York and points in between, there was more talk of "refunding" than of "defunding" the police.
It is difficult in this charged atmosphere to view the Potter case solely in terms of its own facts. But that is what is deserved by both Potter — a 26-year veteran patrol officer — and Daunte Wright — the 20-year-old she shot and killed April 11 of this year when he tried to flee arrest on a gross misdemeanor warrant. In some respects the eight days of trial testimony added little information about these heartbreaking events beyond what anyone knew who had seen the painful body-camera footage that went public in their immediate aftermath.
When a younger officer Potter was training that day tried to handcuff Wright, the suspect pulled away and struggled back into the drivers' seat of his car. In a swirling melee that followed, Potter came to her fellow officer's aid, pulled her service weapon, warned that she was about to fire a "Taser! Taser! Taser!" and then pulled the trigger on her pistol instead, immediately crying, "Oh shit! I shot him!" A great deal of testimony and video was put into evidence by both sides that confirmed what neither team of lawyers really disputed — that Potter had intended to use her disabling Taser weapon and instead confused it with her gun.
(snip)
Deciding just when an error is so fueled by irresponsibility as to become criminal would be difficult enough. But if I actually were a juror in this case, I would go into deliberations frustrated with both teams of lawyers for failing to choose a clear argument and stick with it. For its part, the defense got distracted by a line of argument introduced by several police witnesses, to the effect that Potter would even have been justified in deliberately using deadly force against Wright, given the dangers of the situation. But of course, we were reminded again and again, she didn't intend that, she made a mistake. Meanwhile, Potter's own anguish — on the witness stand and on the video taken the day of the shooting — were conclusive evidence that she did not then and does not now think that killing Daunte Wright was justified. The prosecution, meanwhile, was at pains to remind the jury that the state need not prove Potter intended to kill anyone. Yet they had little to offer to show a conscious lackadaisical approach to her work, or deliberate carelessness. A lack of diligence about daily testing of the electrical charge of her Taser didn't go far for me.
(snip)
Were I a juror in this case I would head into deliberations prepared to resist a guilty verdict on the most severe charge — first-degree manslaughter, with its requirement of conscious recklessness in handling a firearm. I would be skeptical, but ready to hear fellow jurors' thoughts, on the lesser, second-degree charge. I don't yet see conclusive evidence of a knowing disregard of unreasonable risk, but perhaps others would have seen what I missed.
https://www.startribune.com/the-verdict-of-a-13th-juror-on-the-potter-trial/600129001/
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What bothered me then was that she was immediately taken into custody. Not even give Christmas to spend with her family.
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