últimas notícias

About an hour ago

The jury appeared to believe Michael Rosfeld’s testimony that he felt threatened as two teens ran from him, legal experts told the Tribune-Review hours after a jury acquitted the former police officer in the shooting death of Antwon Rose II.

The jury evidently was impressed Rosfeld’s testimony, something Bruce Antkowiak, a law professor at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, termed a “significant factor” in the acquittal.

University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris agreed. In use-of-force cases involving police, a jury is tasked with deciding if Rosfeld has a “reasonable” fear for his safety and his life, Harris said.

“Under the law, he doesn’t have to be correct, only reasonable,” Harris said. “The jury believed Rosfeld’s claim that he was reasonable in fear for his safety and his life.”

Harris said the speed of the verdict indicated the jury didn’t have a problem reaching that conclusion.

“If there was any reason to find him guilty, the debate would have gone on much longer,” Harris said.

The not guilty verdict did not surprise Antkowiak or Harris.

Convictions are not common among cases involving police facing similar charges nationally.

“Juries have a very difficult time putting themselves in a position to second guess a police officer,” Antkowiak said.

Regardless of the verdict, “it’s a no-win situation for anybody,” Antkowiak said.

Rosfeld shot 17-year-old Rose on June 19 as he ran from a felony traffic stop. Rosfeld had stopped the car in which Rose was a passenger because he thought it matched the description of a car suspected in a drive-by shooting minutes earlier.

Rose was one of nearly 1,000 Americans, both black and white, who died last year after being shot by police. Rosfeld was one of just 98 police officers charged homicide in such deaths over the last 14 years. While charges against officers in such shootings are rare, convictions are even rarer. Of the 98 officers charged, three were convicted of murder; 32 others were found guilty of manslaughter or lesser crimes.

Rose was shot three times as he ran. The shooting was captured on video by witnesses.

Harris, however, said this case is another example of how videos do not tell the whole story.

He cited the 2015 North Charleston, S.C. shooting of Walter Scott, who was running away from a police officer who fired eight times that was also captured on video and resulted in a hung jury.

“The video only tells part of the story,” Harris said. “People need to understand that what they see in a video is not enough to prove a case.”

It also points to weaknesses in the law as it applies to law enforcement officers in these cases.

“The law as it stands is not really adequate to address these sorts of problems,” Harris said. “A jury has to judge the actions of a police officer under a standard of whether his actions were objectively reasonable.”

The jury doesn’t get to use hindsight or personal experience to look at the officer’s actions, Harris said. Instead, they should try to view a case “through the eyes of a reasonably objective police officer.”

With that as the standard and with most juries looking at police as the good guys, “it’s quite rare to see the conviction of a police officer even with good evidence,” Harris said.

S. Lee Merritt, an attorney for the Rose family, said after the verdict that laws need to be changed and that he and the family would work toward that.

“Although the facts of the case seemed clear cut, namely that Antwon Rose was shot in the back as he ran from officer Rosfeld; the jury’s verdict was heavily influenced by flaws in current Pennsylvania law that contradict protections afforded citizens by the U.S. Constitution,” Merritt said in a statement released after the verdict. “Antwon’s family and I will be working to change those laws in an effort to prevent other families from suffering a similar disappointment.”

Tom Davidson is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tom at 724-226-4715, tdavidson@tribweb.com or via Twitter .