The conviction of former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter for manslaughter brought closure for the family of Duante Wright and many in our society. The fact, however, is that it will not bring closure on the long-standing debate over the criminalization of negligence in weapon confusion cases.
Many predicted that the largely white jury would deliver racial injustice. As with the jury in the murder trial of Ahmaud Arbery, these jurors showed again that they exhibit the objectivity and integrity too often missing in our commentators and politicians. The question is not whether the jury got the law right but whether the law itself is wrong in its vague criteria.
This is the latest “weapons confusion” case and the jury understandably found it difficult to find that Potter “consciously disregarded” the risks to Duante Wright when she grabbed her service weapon rather than her Taser. The case highlights the problem with criminalized negligence standards, particularly in these weapon confusion cases. The question is whether justice is truly served by applying criminal laws to acts of negligence by officers in these cases.
There was no question in the case that Potter made a terrible and fatal mistake. It is also clear that she did so unintentionally. She called out, consistent with her training, “Taser, Taser, Taser” before firing her service weapon by mistake. She was then shown collapsing at the scene, sobbing that she killed Wright by mistake. The prosecutors did not question that she thought she was grabbing her Taser but demanded a long criminal sentence under the ambiguous standard of involuntary manslaughter.
Potter faced two charges. Under first-degree manslaughter, the prosecution has to prove that Potter caused someone’s death while committing or attempting to commit a lesser crime (in this case reckless handling or use of a firearm). The second charge of second-degree manslaughter requires a showing that she causing someone’s death through culpable negligence, by creating an unreasonable risk and consciously taking chances of causing death or great bodily harm.
Both charges are being used to criminalize an undeniable and unintended act. The only real dividing line between negligence and manslaughter is the ill-defined element of “conscious disregard” of a risk. That standard is fine in some cases where the act itself was intended despite the risks. When someone drives through a crowd at high speed, there is a conscious disregard of the risk even if the person does not want to hit anyone.
There is a tendency to treat criminal law as the only way to address fatal tragedies. Yet, there are many cases where tragic injuries or deaths occur without criminal charges. Torts, which I have taught for three decades, often involve wrongful deaths where people are held civilly, not criminally liable. When a physician causes the death of a patient through malpractice or a company causes the death of a consumer through a product defect, the injuries are generally addressed through tort, not criminal, liability.
It is worth continuing to discuss this case in terms of whether weapons confusion cases should be handled as torts. For some of these jurors, the criminal framing may have felt disconnected from reality. The jury saw an officer who made a mistake on videotape as officers attempted to arrest a struggling suspect, a mistake where the officer expressed immediate and continuing guilt. Some jurors were initially unwilling to treat that mistake as manslaughter.
These cases have always left these same questions lingering in their aftermath. Consider the 2009 case where Bay Area Rapid Transit officers struggled with Oscar Grant to arrest him. With Grant on the ground, BART officer Johannes Mehserle also warned that he was about to use a Taser but then grabbed his service weapon and fired a fatal round into Grant’s back. Unlike Potter, Mehserle could be seen in the videotape moving his thumb over his weapon as you would to release a safety on the Taser. (His service weapon did not have that type of safety release). The Taser in the Mehserle was shaped more like a service weapon (though it was also lighter and yellow).
The jury clearly struggled with the criminalization of Mehserle’s obvious unintentional act. It rejected second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter charges but found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to two years.
There is also the case of volunteer sheriff’s deputy, Robert Bates, in Oklahoma in 2015. Bates meant to use his Taser on Eric Harris, who was being held down by other officers in 2015. He insisted that this was a case of weapon confusion that “has happened a number of times around the country. … You must believe me, it can happen to anyone.” The jury however convicted him of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced him to four years in prison.
Conversely, in 2019, St. Louis police officer, Julia Crews, mistakenly grabbed her service revolver rather than her Taser and shot a suspected shoplifter, Ashley Hall. Crews resigned like Potter after the incident. However, the charge of second-degree assault was eventually dropped (with the support of Hall) in exchange for participation in a restorative justice mediation. Separately, the city of Ladue agreed to a $2 million settlement with Hall.
Jurors have struggled with the use of these provisions for decades as prosecutors demand that they ignore both their empathies and their common sense. What is left for some jurors is not criminal justice, for a type of strict liability for officers.
There is ample deterrence for officers not to commit such mistakes beyond the obvious desire not to take a life. Officers in these cases often face termination and prolonged civil litigation. The relatively low number of these cases (in light of the thousands of Taser discharges) shows that most officers show that such confusion is rare but will likely occur on occasion. It is not clear that these mistakes will be decreased further by criminalizing these mistakes. Since these cases are not intentional, officers are not making some calculus of risk for a criminal act.
Officers often make mistakes. We have had officers fire dozens or even hundreds of rounds that endanger others or engage in high-speed chases over relatively minor offenses. Those cases are rarely treated as criminal rather than civil matters. The same should be true for weapon confusion cases and states should narrow the language in these laws by excluding such cases or clarifying the necessary showing for culpability beyond negligence.
The jury was told by the court to follow the law and it did so to its best judgment. The question is whether the law itself needs to be reviewed before we have another weapon confusion case.
No, the jury got this wrong, and intentionally wrong–while we’re speaking of intentions. This jury was composed of residents of Minneapolis, a pool of typically pro-criminal, anti-cop, and racist Democrats. So, Kim Potter had four strikes against her according to the jury going in: she was a cop, she was white, the person shot and killed was a criminal and the criminal was black. If this dynamic sounds familiar, that’s because it is. This exact situation occurred in the Derek Chauvin trial and with those same “four strikes” and the typically pro-criminal, anti-cop, and racist Democrat jury that’s inevitable in Minneapolis, the verdict was a fait accompli prior to any review of facts, evidence, and the law, which were irrelevant in this case, just as they were in the Chauvin case.
Meanwhile, criminal Michael Byrd–who really should be imprisoned for a long, long time–walks free. Again, the facts, the evidence, and the law were irrelevant in that case too. The victim, Ashli Babbitt, had three strikes against her: she was white, she was female, and–most unforgiveable of all–she was a Patriot. The criminal Michael Byrd had two things working in his favor: he was a criminal masquerading as a law enforcement officer and he was a black criminal, so, naturally, the Department of Injustice and the DC courts were in love with him.
Happy Christmas, everyone.
And one juror has spoken out showing how wrong they got the law. https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/kim-potter-trial-juror-speaks-out/89-7fd1ff32-1464-4333-8255-568c304dfdd6
“JUROR: I don’t think any juror felt Kim Potter was a liar, but we did get the feeling she was fighting for her life by testifying and we understood why she would be. I was very surprised after the verdict came out to learn some people did not find her crying to be real. Just being in the courtroom, it felt very real and tangible to me. She seemed very upset and apologetic. I don’t want to speak for all the jurors, but I think we believed she was a good person and even believed that she was a good cop. No one felt she was intentional in this.
New Video Just Released Today of Trumpsters trying to storm the Capitol but getting their asses kicked by Capitol Police:
People going to Trump rallies don’t bring gas masks. The video likely confirms that the crowd was infiltrated with feds, antifa and BLM thugs, same people who trashed DC during Trump’s inauguration and were subsequently and mysteriously released with charges dropped.
“Jan. 6” was a false flag operation perpetrated to incite to riot; its goal was to create a “fake” “insurrection” and implicate President Donald J. Trump.
The operators employed agitators such as RAY “RED HAT” EPPS and TIM “BAKED ALASKA” GIONET.
“Jan. 6” was an extension of the Obama Coup D’etat in America.
John “Dudley-Will-He-Do-Right” Durham is authorized to investigate, including but not limited to, persons who violated the law with respect to the 2016 election of President Trump and the Trump administration.
John “Dudley-Will-He-Do-Right” Durham must extend his Special Counsel investigation into “Jan 6” as a false flag operation to falsely incriminate President Donald J. Trump.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ORDER NO. 4878-2020
APPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE MATTERS RELATED TO
INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS ARJSING OUT OF THE 2016
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS
On May 13, 2019, I directed United States Attorney John Durham to conduct a
preliminary review into certain matters related to the 2016 presidential election campaigns, and
Mr. Durham ‘ s review subsequently developed into a criminal investigation, which remains
ongoing. Following consultation with Mr. Durham, I have determined that, in light of the
extraordinary circumstances relating to these matters, the public interest warrants Mr. Durham
continuing this investigation pursuant to the powers and independence afforded by the Special
Counsel regulations. Accordingly, by virtue of the authority vested in the Attorney General,
including 28 U.S .C. §§ 509,5 10, and 515, in order to discharge my responsibility to provide
supervision and management of the Department of Justice, and to ensure a full and thorough
investigation of these matters, I hereby order as follows:
(a) John Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, is appointed to
serve as Special Counsel for the Department of Justice.
(b) The Special Counsel is authorized to investigate whether any federal official,
employee, or any other person or entity violated the law in connection with the intelligence,
counter-intelligence, or law-enforcement activities directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns,
individuals associated with those campaigns, and individuals associated with the administration
of President Donald J. Trump, including but not limited to Crossfire Hurricane and the
investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, Ill.
(c) If the Special Counsel believes it is necessary and appropriate, the Special Counsel is
authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from his investigation of these matters.
(d) 28 C.F.R . §§ 600.4 to 600.l Oare applicable to the Special Counsel.
(e) Pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 600.9(b), I have determined that the notification requirement
in 28 C.F.R. § 600.9(a)(l) should be tolled until at least after the November 3, 2020 election
because legitimate investigative and privacy concerns warrant confidentiality.
(f) In addition to the confidential report required by 28 C.F.R. § 600.8(c), the Special
Counsel, to the maximum extent possible and consistent with the law and the policies and
practices of the Department of Justice, shall submit to the Attorney General a final report, and
such interim reports as he deems appropriate, in a form that will permit public dissemination.
William P. Barr
https://youtu.be/kF5uefFChNY
Good lesson learned. Next time come armed.
You sound like George Washington.
____________________________
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
– Declaration of Independence, 1776
Ron,
3 HOURS! Really?
How about you spare us with a life & post the cliff note clips to make your case Piglosi/McConnell/Gen Mattis/ AG Barr/Bidens Crew/etc., are not Traitorous Anti-American Commie Scum most of us already know they are?
Clearly the problem is gun-toting white conservative males: “Yeah I had to shoot him to death….anal rape, pedophiles, arsonists…he was trying to take my gun…..boom, boom, boom.”
Prisons are full of poor “Rittenhouses” who couldn’t afford a multi-million dollar defense team and bad cops.
More than 54% of all murders are committed by black males–about 7% of the population– and people like you keep ranting that we need to worry about whites.
Even Jesse Jackson admitted that he was afraid of black men at times. I wonder why so many of these black “civil rights leaders” move into gated white communities once they get their bundles of cash?
Read the Daily Mail article about Duante I linked below.
Another look at the feral thug Potter put down.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10329753/Daunte-Wright-victims-tell-violent-past.html
Potter should have been given the Medal of Honor.
Another attorney’s view on the verdict. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/12/kim-potter-convicted.php
“[Potter called out, consistent with her training, “Taser, Taser, Taser” before firing her service weapon by mistake.”
Her only “mistake” was not *intentionally* pulling her gun, saying “gun, gun, gun” — then, if he didn’t comply, shooting Wright.
Don’t want to get shot by the police? Then don’t resist arrest. Don’t try to flee. Don’t commandeer a deadly weapon. Comply with police orders, and live to fight another day.
In a better world, Potter would be enjoying a ticker-tape parade.
The one time that I think a hung jury would be appropriate. Sorry, make that a hanged jury.
With modern technology, we could probably eliminate 90% of all in-person police interactions with citizens. The technology is there to keep both police and citizens safer.
True with older technology– keep the animals in cages and stop the insane Progressive social experiments that turn the whole country into a prison where we are prey to criminals.
She was a person who accepted responsibility for the care and use of weapons. She has been held responsible for their use. Might not like it, but there it is. If you do not have the ability to maintain situational awareness during high stress situations, do not put yourself in those positions, for instance become a cop. There exists no excuse for her mistake. Time to pay the piper.
Jimbobla, interesting point of view. I wish you would join a police force and show everyone how to do things properly. But you would have to leave the couch in mom’s basement.
So you admit she had no intent to kill and made a mistake. Now go read the law on the crimes they erroneously found her guilty of. Why guilty on 2 manslaughter charges?
My take away:
Turley
“Potter faced two charges. Under first-degree manslaughter, the prosecution has to prove that Potter caused someone’s death while committing or attempting to commit a lesser crime (in this case reckless handling or use of a firearm). The second charge of second-degree manslaughter requires a showing that she causing someone’s death through culpable negligence, by creating an unreasonable risk and consciously taking chances of causing death or great bodily harm.”
and
“Both charges are being used to criminalize an undeniable and unintended act. The only real dividing line between negligence and manslaughter is the ill-defined element of “conscious disregard” of a risk. That standard is fine in some cases where the act itself was intended despite the risks. When someone drives through a crowd at high speed, there is a conscious disregard of the risk even if the person does not want to hit anyone.”
Me:
Under first degree manslaughter, with which I understand she was convicted, what lesser crime had she committed: was her in the instant confusion between her taser and her gun really an example of reckless—ie, heedless of consequences, requiring “conscious disregard of risk,” like shooting a gun indiscriminately with people around but not intending to kill anyone? I simply can’t see that immediate, in the instant tragic confusion as meeting “the conscious disregard of risk” standard that tips her terrible error into manslaughter.
Turley postures neutrality but I read him subtextually to say Potter shouldn’t have been found guilty of 1st degree manslaughter.
Good post. There was no “conscious disregard of risk.”
“The conviction of former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter for manslaughter brought closure for the family of Duante Wright and many in our society.”
It was negligent homicide, but…
Duarte Wright was scum and would have wound up dead or in prison sooner or later. I don’t give a flying damn about his family. They never paid “reparations” to the people harmed by their brat from hell. I don’t see closure. I just see tragedy.
Achiral1 says:
“Everyone knows Trump is a liar. You just have the added mental illness factor.”
*Everyone* knows that Trump is a liar?
I said:
Really? You speak for all the Trumpist/Q-Anon people? Not one Trumpist here has ever conceded that Trump is a chronic liar.
Independent Bob said:
“Trump,Trump,Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump , Trump.”
I say:
Ok, that’s 2 people here who think Trump is a chronic liar. Anyone else?
I prefer the phrase “chronic, habitual liar”, an accusation directed by Charles Laughton in “Witness For the Prosecution.”
Merry Christmas, by the way!
Natacha,
Yes, great movie and a very fine actor too!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
George,
I don’t follow all these cases, Arbery/McMichael was another in a long series of cases used by American Hating Evil to promote more racial hatred as well to force citizens to surrender all their “Rights” to Self Defence, Policing & more to move the people to allowing the State/Fed Govt a complete Monopoly of Use of Force.
I guess now days Builders/Developers & Ranchers are being push by Commie/Fascist to stand completely aside, serve snacks to Criminals as their Daughters are being Raped/Murdered/Property Burnt or Stolen.
Nature has not allowed that type of stuff to continue long.
The Globalist see us as their Slaves & thus they can’t stand having their Slaves with “Rights, Free speech, the 2nd, etc.” & the power to use Force.
Just look at the international news the past year. The globalist are pulling tight the Noose on people everywhere.
The people of Hong Kong have been turned to into slaves right in front of our eyes.
Biden steals his way in & immediately his people went to Purging all agencies of Americans in LE/Military, etc. & replaced them with Commie Trash & assorted nut cases.
Biden, I think it was last June in the Nat’l Strategy For Countering Domestic Terrorism, basically declared all “Legal American” US citizens terrorist.
Looks like we’ll all find out soon enough how ’22 starts to play out.
I wonder what the outcome would have been if she didn’t have a taser and simply and deliberately shot this criminal garbage because he was trying to flee while her partner’s life was in danger because he was caught it the passenger window. Sounds like a justified killing.
Maybe the new rule is that an officer just can’t shoot any black guy no matter what crime he is committing, what building he is burning, what store he is looting or what woman he is strangling in a robbery.
Young — yes…I dispute Turley’s claim that the jury delivered “racial justice.” There was nothing racial about this case except what the race hustlers tried to make of it.
Giocon,
I am wondering if some of the jurors were threatened. A lot of that has been happening lately–threats against lawyers, judges and jurors. That needs to be focused on and stopped now and stopped hard.
Sarc: You guys see, in order for there to be “Racial Justice” the cops like Kim Potter & Keona Holley are now supposed to hand the criminal their gun & stand real still so perp can blast away. Sarc off
This country is so screwed with all these “Racial Justice” & “Woke” Crap.
Maybe we should check with lawyers & Supreme Court if they still think under Title 9.., etc., it’s still ok to let Grown Intact Males in with little girls.
(Idiots to the Left & Idiots to the Right but the Undertakers love the biz.)
*****
Tragic. Baltimore Police Officer Who Was Shot in Head During Ambush Dies – Joined the Police Force at Age 37 to Make a Difference (VIDEO)
By Jim Hoft
Published December 24, 2021 at 9:00am
263 Comments
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/tragic-baltimore-police-officer-shot-head-ambush-dies-joined-police-force-age-37-make-difference-video/
I think that was his point.
Kim Potter was a gross miscarriage of justice. Kim Potter was clearly a defective human being with a defective human mind. She had an accident and no discernible intent to harm. She immediately expressed her horror at the mistaken accidental firing of her pistol rather than the similarly configured taser that has a hand grip and trigger shield. In the confusion and charged atmosphere of the crime and arrest, this frenzied and hapless female grasped the wrong device, exclaimed, “Taser, taser,” and fired. Had this been a non-DUI vehicular accident, responsibility would have been established and damages recompensed. Kim Potter was provided insufficient training. This was not a comical “woman driver,” this was tragic “woman copper.” This was purely an accident. For many, the most difficult aspect of accidents is having no “guilty party.” Accidental deaths have no one to blame. Certainly, Kim Potter is not to blame.
Defective? Potter was on the force 26 years without a blemish on her record. Awarded a Medal of Merit for her bravery in rescuing 9 people from a house fire in 2016. Dor 26 years she she admirable did a job with a high risk of getting killed.
Perhaps we should go back to the old days where the police only carry one weapon… a gun. THen the confusion is gone. Tasers don’t always stop bad guys, but guns do. Bad guys will know that if they run or fight, they won’t be “disarmed” by a taser but will be shot if a fight ensues.
Ahmaud Arbery was a gross miscarriage of justice. Clearly on the video, the eminently suspicious and known psychotic felon committed assault by attacking the man with the shotgun in the video. Had the man with the shotgun had the intent to kill Arbery, he would have done so earlier and at a greater distance. He was not there to kill Arbery but to execute a citizen’s arrest of Arbery. The absurd verdict by the intimidated and terrified jury was clearly capitulation-cum-reverse racism; the kind of reverse racism engendered in milquetoast cowards who are filled with phantom, chimerical guilt, and afraid to present and defend the clear and manifest facts and truth.
Achiral1 says:
“Everyone knows Trump is a liar. You just have the added mental illness factor.”
*Everyone* knows that Trump is a liar? Really? You speak for all the Trumpist/Q-Anon people?
Not one Trumpist here has ever conceded that Trump is a chronic liar.
Trump,Trump,Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump , Trump.
And Trump has what to do with this topic?
Independent Bob wants to know what brought this up:
“Just Stoppitt” accused me:
“And…..the resident TDS patient has checked in.”
I defended myself that I am not alone:
Turley suffers from TDS too. He called for Trump’s Congressional CENSURE after 1/6:
“THE CASE FOR A TRUMP CENSURE”
https://jonathanturley.org/2021/01/13/the-case-for-a-trump-censure/
“Trump repeated clearly false statements about the constitutional process and made the unconscionable demand that Pence should usurp that process by “sending back” electoral votes. As many of us said repeatedly for weeks, Pence had no such authority and could not unilaterally act as Trump demanded. Yet, Trump continued to tell his followers that such authority existed — leading many of them to launch a hashtag campaign to “#hangmikepence.”
And then I concluded:
I’m in good company with Turley; we both know Trump is a liar.
Ukraine is a sovereign nation and can enter into any alliance or organization that it wants to. Ukraine is not a battered wife to be controlled by a domineering husband, Russia.
Every year more cops are shot accidentally with their own guns than by hostile action. It is also guaranteed that with enough encounters some cops will shoot some people they don’t intend to. We all are human, we err.
Thank you Mr. Turley for framing the question of how we should deal with these rare, but predictable, events.