(CN) – Former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager will plead guilty Tuesday to violating the civil rights of an unarmed black motorist he shot dead after the man ran from an April 2015 traffic stop.
Dan McCue | Courthouse News Service
Slager, who is white, was charged with murder and violating the civil rights of Walter Scott during an incident that was captured on a cellphone video by a passerby. Slager’s trial on state murder charges ended in a hung jury last fall.
His federal trial on civil rights violations was to start next week.
Instead, he will appear in court Tuesday and plead guilty . In return, the 13-page plea agreement says, both federal and state prosecutors will drop murder charges against him, ending the state’s bid for a retrial that expected to begin in mid-summer.
As for the federal case, in recent days U.S. District Judge David Norton has been presiding over pre-trial hearings during which potential jury instructions were discussed as well as the validity and admissibility of expert testimony.
But according to the plea agreement, Slager has agreed to say he violated 18 USC Section 242, depriving Walter Scott’s rights under the color of law, and “willfully used deadly force even though it was objectively unreasonable under the circumstances.”
“The defendant acknowledges that during the time he used deadly force, he knew that the use of deadly force was unnecessary and excessive, and therefore unreasonable under the circumstances,” the plea says.
Continue to full article at Courthouse News Service.
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