Vol. 74/No. 44      November 22, 2010

Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the killing of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old grocery store worker Jan. 1, 2009, as Grant lay face down on an Oakland train station platform. Mehserle’s defense asserted he mistakenly drew his gun when he intended to use a Taser on Grant. The prosecution disputed this claim, pointing out that Mehserle did not mention the Taser story until days after the shooting.

Grant’s killing was witnessed by a large number of people who were on the platform at the time, some of whom filmed the events on their cell phones. The pictures show Mehserle shooting a prone and defenseless Grant.

Mehserle’s trial and sentencing took place in Los Angeles because his defense won a change in venue, citing too much publicity about the killing in the Bay Area for Mehserle to get a fair trial.

Judge Robert Perry read his verdict to the 50 people crammed into his tiny courtroom. Only five seats, determined by a lottery, were given to the public, which is how this reporter got in. Most of the seats were reserved for family members of Mehserle and Grant and major media.

Before the verdict, Perry read from some of the thousands of letters he said he received on the case. He said those letters that drew attention to systemic racism in the U.S. criminal justice system particularly incensed him. These views contradicted the fact that the country has elected an African-American president, he commented.

Perry angered many of those present when he said that the case was a very difficult one for him. He said there were really two tragedies—the first being that Oscar Grant had lost his life and the other that Mehserle had permanently lost a promising career.

Perry spent so much time expressing his sympathy for Mehserle, while simultaneously encouraging the defense attorneys to pursue mistrial motions, that many of those in the courtroom left before hearing the sentence. Supporters of the Grant family assumed Perry was going to release Mehserle. With obvious reluctance, the judge sentenced Mehserle to two years—the minimum sentence—minus the 292 days already served.

Before the verdict, Mehserle’s lawyers aggressively pursued several motions to overturn the guilty verdict and get a new trial. Judge Perry spoke to each of them, weighing their pros and cons. He agreed with the cop’s lawyer that he had wrongly instructed the jury that gun enhancement laws could be applied to the involuntary manslaughter verdict. In Mehserle’s case, gun enhancement could have added 10 years to the sentence.

Gun enhancement laws increase a sentence where a gun is used in the commission of a crime. These laws are typically used against working-class defendants, especially Blacks and Latinos.

Following the hearing, a small demonstration outside the courthouse here denounced the light sentence.

In Oakland, a rally of hundreds took place in front of Oakland City Hall, with one speaker after another expressing outrage at the judge’s rulings. After the rally drew to a close some of the protesters began a march toward the Fruitvale train station. En route hundreds of police in riot gear encircled marchers, taking advantage of rock throwing from within the crowd, to arrest more than 150 people on charges of vandalism, unlawful assembly, and disturbing the peace.
 
 
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