Clergy ask AG for retrial in fatal Charlotte police shooting
RALEIGH -- Ministers and activists met with North Carolina's attorney general Friday to discuss his decision not to retry a Charlotte police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed black man.
Officials with the state chapter of the NAACP say they and Charlotte clergy members spoke with Attorney General Roy Cooper about his decision not to retry Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Randall Kerrick.
Kerrick was indicted on a voluntary manslaughter charge in the death of Jonathan Ferrell. Police say a resident called police after Ferrell wrecked his car and banged on his door in September 2013.
Investigators say one officer deployed his Taser without apparent effect before Kerrick fired 12 shots, 10 of which hit him. Kerrick testified he repeatedly fired because Ferrell kept charging at him.
A judge last month declared a mistrial in Kerrick's voluntary manslaughter trial after jurors said they were deadlocked - voting 8-4 in favor of acquittal.
Cooper decided last week not to retry the case citing that vote and saying the jury had spoken.
The president of North Carolina's NAACP decried that decision noting that many black men have been retried under similar circumstances and some of them later proved to be not guilty.
"We cannot set this precedent in this state and in this nation that a hung jury is a spoke jury. And there's too much history in this state where African Americans who have later on been proven innocent have been tried and retried," Rev. William Barber said.
After the two hour meeting Friday, the group said Cooper heard them out.
"To say that we're satisfied? I don't know if we can say that, but I think that we are content that we did have the meeting with him, that he did listen, that every minister had an opportunity to voice their opinion," said Dr. Earl Johnson of Martin Street Baptist Church.
The ministers said they are praying that Cooper will change his mind.
Cooper's spokesperson said Friday that "it was a productive meeting and we look forward to continuing to work with the participants to improve the criminal justice system."
