Police accused of serious crimes enjoy low conviction rates
In the wake of the acquittal of Edward Nero in the Freddie Gray case, it’s notable that there is a relatively low conviction rate for police officers accused of serious crimes.
Click here for reuse options!Since 2005, 70 officers in this country have faced charges related to an on-duty shooting. Only 23 were found guilty. That is a conviction rate of less than 33 percent.
Police departments are facing more scrutiny than ever before. The Department of Justice has been launching investigations into police tactics across the country, and local prosecutors are pursuing cases that historically have been tough to win, reports CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues…
“Just an honest assessment of these types of cases are — they are difficult to prove in front of juries,” said Johnny Baer, who prosecuted Pennsylvania police officer Lisa Mearkle.
Mearkle was found not guilty in November in the shooting death of David Kassick.
“People want and are willing to give police officers the benefit of the doubt, when they’re in uniform, and they’re making split-second decisions, in very difficult environments,” Baer said.
Researchers at Bowling Green University said about 1,100 people are killed in police shootings every year. But in 2015, just 18 officers were charged and only three were convicted.
Copyright 2016 Liberaland
3 responses to Police accused of serious crimes enjoy low conviction rates
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Buford2k11 May 24th, 2016 at 09:28
it seems the Unions are part of the problem as well…they are no ordinary Union tho…they have money, they have power, and they have the full force of the law with them…this insulates them from the people, and opens things up for corruption…
Tommie May 24th, 2016 at 10:14
Back in 2014, we had a car show at my job for our 50th anniversary and many people should up! This last weekend we had a safety get together to talk about drunk driving and texting, people got free car seats and there were alot of police there and only a few showed and people were saying that people lost confidence in the police and that is why we had such a low turnout!
Don May 28th, 2016 at 23:08
Its because most prosecutors and judges are former cops. The thin blue line is a lot thicker and stretches a lot farther. They all look and protect each other. Cop perjury even has a special name – testilying. Now they are protected group in Louisiana.