A juror in the Randall Kerrick trial is speaking out on the deadlock that led to a mistrial being declared after four days of deliberation. Kerrick, a Charlotte Mecklenburg (NC) police officer, was charged with voluntary manslaughter in the 2013 shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell, an unarmed black man.
Moses Wilson, a Vietnam veteran and the only black male on the jury, cited one unanswered question that lingered throughout the trial: What did Jonathan Ferrell do to warrant death?
He asked that question of attorneys during jury selection and of his fellow jurors during the trial. He never got an answer.
“No one ever answered what (Ferrell) did,” Wilson said. “They only answered what he didn’t do. He didn't put his hands up, he didn't stop crawling.”
Wilson came to the conclusion that Kerrick used excessive force when he shot and killed Ferrell.
He was also troubled by the fact that Kerrick turned off his dash cam before the shooting and was troubled by what he didn't hear on the video that was captured.
“No sounds of commands were heard at that time, none,” Wilson said.
Chilling.
More on the jury selection and composition here:
The jury was made up of eight women and four men. Three of the men are white and one is black. There are four white women, two black women and two Hispanic women. An African American man was chosen as the only black man on the panel.
Moses Wilson was the
last juror chosen of the twelve, and his selection was welcomed as a "small victory" by local civil rights activists. In another interview
he was even more straightforward.
A juror who heard evidence in the trial of a white North Carolina police officer said he challenged his colleagues to determine what an unarmed black man did to lead the defendant to fatally shoot him.
“I wrote on the board: ‘What did Jonathan Ferrell do, and I underlined “do,” to warrant death: 10 shots.’ I had done this because there was nothing that I had seen in the weeks preceding that showed me what he had done,” said juror Moses Wilson, who was one of the jurors who chose to convict Officer Randall Kerrick of voluntary manslaughter.
“And I said that if anyone can show me what he did, I might change my vote – which is going to be for conviction – to acquittal, and every day, that was my challenge,” he said.
Please
read the whole article if you can, because Moses Wilson takes a three-week trial and sums it up in a few elegant paragraphs. I stand in awe of his quiet strength.
Edit: typo fixed, links and background added