The progress is slow and compromised, but it’s still highly unusual to get a murder conviction when a cop kills a civilian. Yet the Chicago trial of then-officer Jason Van Dyke concluded with an 81-month sentence for second-degree murder.
Yes, there was clear dashcam evidence that 16-year-old Laquan McDonald, armed with only a penknife, was gunned down within six (6) seconds of Van Dyke’s arrival on the scene. Yes, he shot him 16 times, despite the fact that McDonald fell at the first shot. Yes, Van Dyke had a history of mistreatment of suspects. None of that seems to matter as much as the compromise prosecutors made, agreeing to fold related charges and the murder charge into a single charge of second-degree murder.
I think that compromise was the key to the conviction. Juries, as trials all over the country have shown, give police wide leeway on behavior. Given only the either-or choice of a long prison sentence for first-degree murder or acquittal, they most frequently choose the latter. Supporting evidence for my theory: Three of Van Dyke’s colleagues were acquitted of charges that they lied in backing up Van Dyke’s fictional account of the shooting, even after the jury found their written reports to be false.
Changing this attitude of deference to police authority is going to be slow and painful, and will only happen when people take to the streets to protest it, one unjustified police killing at a time. This trial shows prosecutors how to get convictions — give juries a punishment option they’re comfortable with and they will convict.