CHARLESTON, S.C. – Latest in the trial of a former South Carolina police officer charged with murder in the shooting of an unarmed black motorist (all times local):
9:55 a.m.
Jurors have resumed deliberations in the trial of a former South Carolina patrolman charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black motorist.
The jury is weighing the case of Michael Slager, the former North Charleston patrolman charged in the death of 50-year-old Walter Scott. Scott was shot five times in the back as he ran from a traffic stop in April 2015.
The shooting was captured by a bystander on dramatic cellphone video that stunned the nation.
The jury deliberated for about an hour Wednesday evening after receiving instructions from Circuit Judge Clifton Newman.
They jurors can acquit Slager, find him guilty of murder or find him guilty of a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.
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4:30 a.m.
Jurors in the Michael Slager murder trial will resume deliberating the fate of the white former South Carolina patrolman charged with killing a black motorist.
Slager is charged in the shooting death of 50-year-old Walter Scott, who was shot five times in the back while running from a traffic stop in April of last year.
Although Slager was charged with murder after cellphone video of the shooting surfaced, Circuit Judge Clifton Newman told jurors Wednesday that they could consider a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.
The jury of one black man and 11 whites will return to the Charleston County Courthouse to resume deliberations Thursday. The judge instructed them in the law and they began their discussions late Wednesday, considering the case for about an hour before breaking for the night.
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