SAN FRANCISCO--For those of you who thought the long-running saga of Oscar Grant’s death at the hands of BART police was drawing to a close, think again. Michael Rains, the attorney for ex-BART officer Johannes Mehserle, filed on October 1st for a retrial.
Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter with a gun enhancement on July 8th by Judge Robert Perry in Los Angeles Superior Court. The trial was moved from Alameda County down south at Rains’ request because of what he argued was prejudicial media coverage by Bay Area media. .
In the motion (included at the end of the post), Rains argues that Mehserle should receive a new trial because of previous incidents where police officers have fired their gun while mistaking it for a taser. Rains had unsuccessfully pursued this line of argument during the trial. Alameda County Prosecutor David Stein argued that Mehserle could not have mistaken his Sig Sauer pistol for his taser because of the latter device’s shape, coloration and lighter weight. Stein also introduced a photograph from Oscar Grant’s cellphone of Mehserle aiming a taser at Grant shortly before their encounter turned fatal. Rains wrote that Stein’s portrayal of Mehserle’s act as a unique incident amounted to misleading the jury, resulting in the additional gun enhancement to the involuntary manslaughter finding.
Rains’ arguments will be heard on November 5th, the day Johannes Mehserle is expected to be sentenced. He faces anywhere from five to fourteen years in prison that hinges on the gun enhancement. The Oakland Police Department are already bracing for another round of protests: The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 has called a “Justice for Oscar Grant” rally on October 23rd. OPD has already identified October 23rd and November 5th as potential large scale crowd control situations.
If there’s any certainty in all this mess, it’s that the sentencing day will mean a lot of people in the street – over a thousand protesters turned out when Mehserle was sentenced on July 8th, with police departments from as far away as Vacaville responding to the disturbances that broke out that night.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Tuesday, October 5th 2010 at 11:24AM
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