officers - The Black Vault

• •
• • • , .-· • c : • 11 ··":'" ~--=·,, . -::~· :=:~·, · · · '"lt·:: • -~ ' "!- • ' But cnl' alf' the other cot,mts, the
From the Jurors'· :~- ·· : .. ·.~· ... -: ·: ... ~ ··. ·· · jurors t.manimously agreed that ~e
· · · ' · ·.. • · ·' =· · · · •. officers did what they had to do to
We, the jury in the case of the People vs. Powell et al., would control King. · . . ·' . · · ··
like to.make three ~hings'known. First, wewoul(ilike to , , "Based upon the testimony, the
thank everyone involved for trying to make this wliole . · - . evidence, the information that was
experience for us as easy as possible. Secqnd, we would like to ask an ·· provided to us, [the officers' acmembers
of the media or anyone else who would want to contact us· - tions were) well within the. scope of
· about this case, please do not. If we want to speak about it we will do the 'Los Angeles Police Academy
· · so in our own time and in our own way. Finally; we would like to say • training," the juror said .. "Th~y
that this experience has been an extremely qifficul~ and stressfuJ used everything that .they had at
one, one which we have all agonized over a great deal. We feel we · their availability."
have done the best job we possibly .could have done. .
While the jurors found the police
· · ·· ' . . • . ·. · · · . '· . . ' officers' testimony to ·be by and
· · : ' · .. Iarg~ credible, this juror said that
companions would have been beat- ·been a closely guarded secret, and! the panel' did not believe the comen.
Jurors also felt that the officerS. upon its dramatic conclusion, they ments of Briseno-"-who tried to
acted within th~ ·scope of LAPD. ·fought hard to keep it that way. _-distance himself from the other
regulations, and that the injuries to Although it had been rep?rted officers by saying Ute beating was
King's head occurred as he 'fe~ .to t)l~t the jl!ry conclu~ed its dehber- wrong. Instead, Briseno· ~as
the ground, not-as the prosecu- -· · at10ns Frtday .on all counts except viewed as having turned agamst
tion asserted-from the beating h~ the one that resulted in ·a mistrial,j the other officers in .an attempt to
received. . · this juror said that was not the I get himself acquitted ..· .
, As for the officers, tl_le juror said, : case. In fact, the final straw votesi "In the main, in the most-part;''
they were justifiably i_n fe.ar JlS they ,. o.n all the cou~ts were t,~ke!li the j~or said, "i fee~ that the
ftttempted to arrest King. · . ..Wednesday. 7'he JurY spent l~ng. officers were quite credible. When
'."They're policemen, they're not· . and· tedious hou~" ~oing ·9verl they were talking about .the inci­
~ngels," the juror ~aid. "They'~ · ~vidence _in. ~e ~se, looking at the, dent, and talking to us about what
out there to do a low-down ditty . videotape over and over, some.- actually 'happened that night, you
job. Would you want your husband ,. ·times slowing it down so that 1t could see fear and you coJ¥d .see
doing it, or your son or Y9W :. eould be viewed frame by frame. the stress of the whole situation. It
fath,er?" . • . . Count by count, the jurors exam- .bad to be a very painful situation,
. For the jurors, the deliQeration.s ; med the testimony and tried to very painful." . ·
·were exhausting. The panel-:-none ·reach conclusions. The discussion As the juror spoke, rioters were
·of them black-had been thrown ·.-was emotipnal, bt1t not volatile. tearing up the streets of Los An­
·together i_n their task after a p~s- : The ·first straw vote came ~t the . geles in response to the ver~ct the
taking, monthlong process· of Jury . end of the second day of dehbera- .panel had issued hours earlier. But
selection in which 248 other Vel')_- .. tions, and there were pountless the possibility that there might be
fura County -residents were elirtli-. ·... Straw votes ~ter that. · a· violent response tO their decision
,nated. " : . ,. · ·After all the facts had been I did not-and could not-enter into
They represented all carrier~ o'f :· reviewed, the only 'bitter debate .the discussions,' the juror said.
society-a .cable splicer, a bank ~-revolved around a charge of as-. "That was not something that
clerk, a ·retired real estate broker.' _! _sault unqer· color of ·:authority :we would allow to go through our
.A phone company technician,. ~.: ; against Powell. On that count, the minds simply because it could not
computer analyst, a housekee~:· :'"jury :split 8 to 4 and ~he judge be p~t of our equation. It was not
A retired naval aviator, ·a' p~~ •.:-'~ declared a mis!ri~. The. four who part of ,the testimony, it was not
ranger, a college groun~skeep~r.-~.:.:-: -voted for conviction believed t~at part of the trial._ Had v,:e ·been
prograll_l manager, a retired m~n~· :, -~owel_l should have stopped strik- .thinking about th,at, we coUld have
health worker, a nurse. Through~{ -·.·mg Kmg sooner, ~ccording to the .;thought of the officers' careers, and
~ut the-·~~!· their identitie~ -~p~,.... Juror,, :;.,:,~~.....;,..:,.................:..s....... •.-•. , _ bv~couldn't thinkpftnateither."