Whatever the motivation, Weisberg's decision travel the part from Los Angeles County, whose population is 64 percent nonwhite, to Ventura County, whose population is 34 percent nonwhite (Cohen, 1992). That would prove critical in a geek where four white officers were charged with beating an African-American man. much importantly, Weisberg had moved the discharge from a predominantly urban county to a predominantly suburban county, where attitudes about the police differ dramatically.
solely is this simply a slipperiness of a suburban jury, comprised of 11 whites (including one Latino) and 1 Asian, siding with white police officers everyplace an African-American man? Not so fast. Regardless of the racial and ethnic makeup of the jury, the prosecution still could have win the case, at least against officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell, if not for several serious blunders.
They offset printing blundered by letting several jurors with ties to law enforcement sit on the jury (Weinstein, 1993). Such a decision reflected a hubris that be to be the prosecution's undoing. The District Attorney's office seemed to believe that the telly tapeline alone could convict the defendants, no matter the biases of the jury.
Their decisions throughout the trial reflected that view. The prosecutors presented an underwhelming case in chief, to say the least. Their case consisted of the idiot box, testimony f
Koon took the stand first. He described business leader as wild-eyed and super strong, like he had interpreted PCP. Koon described the yetts before and after the video, and also described events that the video could not pick up, such as his constant emit at baron to stop. Koon recounted how he shot pouf double with a taser gun to immobilize him, without success. Koon then went through the video tape frame by frame, justifying each blow as a reaction to an aggressive action by King (Cohen, 1992). The prosecution played into the defense's hands while cross-examining Koon, referring to the victim not by name but as "him" and "he." This only furthered the demonisation of King in the eyes of the jury.
The rationale, as stated by Justice Black in Green v.
United conjures (1957), "is that the State with all its resources and power should not be allowed to make recurrent attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense, thereby subjecting him to embarrassment, expense and ordeal and compelling him to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity, as well as enhancing the possibility that even though innocent he may be prove guilty."
Cannon, L. (1998). Official negligence: How Rodney King and riots changed Los Angeles and the LAPD. New York: Times Books.
A year later, the federal prosecutors got their shot, charging the four officers with violating King's civil rights. In whatever sense, they had a harder case because they had to prove that the officers intended to deprive King of his civil rights. Several factors, however, worked in the federal government's favor. First, U.S. Attorneys are nearly of the best lawyers in the country, including the two assigned to United States v. Powell, et al. Second, the case would heard in federal court, where judges run a much tighter ship than the state courts. Third, the federal prosecutors had the benefit of hindsight. Fourth, the case would be heard in Los Angeles.
Having been seriously wounded, the prosecu
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