LOS ANGELES - Sentencing for Johannes Mehserle in the involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of Oscar Grant has been moved to the fall.
L.A. County Superior Court released an advisory this afternoon updating the sentencing from August 6th to November 5th at 8:30 a.m. Mehserle's attorney Michael Rains asked for an extension to prepare for sentencing.
In other news related to the verdict and its aftermath, it's being reported that Oakland police may bring charges against mayoral candidates Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan for their role in Thursday's protests after reviewing video footage of their involvement after the verdict was announced.
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The following was broadcast on NPR's All Things Considered
By: Denise Tejada
INTRO: As the Judge finished giving his instructions to the jury in Los Angeles, as if it was a signal, store owners in downtown Oakland began boarding up their windows. Within hours many storefronts pasted a silkscreen poster of Oscar Grant on their windows... some already boarded up with plywood.
Here in downtown Oakland the question was -- is Oscar Grant’s image all over downtown Oakland --a protection for storeowners...or a sign of support?
Kelly Finnigan is an insurance clerk at a dental office downtown. . While her neighbors boarded up their windows, her office chose to tape up a single Oscar Grant poster.
Finnigan: If the picture saves us from getting our windows broken, we’ll have it up, but we have it up for support of the family. Personally I think that he rioters aren’t really the Oscar Grant protestors, the real Oscar Grant protestors are the ones that are peaceful. You know what I mean. His family doesn’t want more violence, there’s been enough violence.
There are Oscar Grant posters all over. And many of them came from People’s Choice Silkscreen, just a block from the dental office. Owner Sorell Raino-Tsui, wallpapered his windows with posters, and says he had no idea they would become so popular…
Soreli Tsui: A lot of businesses started coming by. They saw us on the news. They were asking for posters, wanting to put up posters of their own. So that their property wouldn’t get damaged. So that they could show their support. And we probably has a hundred businesses come by over the last few days and ask for posters.
While the jury deliberated in fits and starts over the last week, community leaders worked to changed the rallying cry from
“Demand Justice for Oscar Grant to “Violence is not Justice.
As soon as the involuntary manslaughter verdict was announced in Los Angeles, Office buildings in Oakland emptied and there was an instant traffic jam on roads leaving the City.
AMBIENT: Sounds of protest.
The initial protests in front of City Hall were mostly non violent. But when night fell --as promised --anarchists and others battled police …set fire to dumpsters, broke windows and looted several stores.
Grace Lee, who closed her beauty supply store minutes before the verdict was read, watched the protests from home on her TV. At 10 PM she got a call from the alarm company.
Lee: A bunch of people just ran into the store, just taking the merchandise…(sighs). I’m really disappointed.
AMBIENT: Sounds of breaking glass.
This morning crews were cleaning up the damage, replacing cracked windows or boarding up new ones. Store owners who boarded up say they are glad they did.
They say they’ll keep their plywood and their Oscar Grant posters up until after the Judge’s sentencing on Aug 6th.
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LOS ANGELES-- A question that came out of Friday’s deliberations in the Oscar Grant murder trial has become a focal point for speculation about what is being discussed in the jury room. Filed on July 2nd by Juror #6, the question has been set aside by Judge Robert Perry because it was asked by the last configuration of the jury. Nevertheless, speculation has abounded as the question pertains to section 570 of the jury instructions, which covers the definition of voluntary manslaughter.
The Question:
"Subject to section 570 of the Juror Instructions, we would like clarification as to provication [sic]. Can this provication [sic] come from other sources other than the suspect(s)."
The pertinent part of Section 570 defines voluntary manslaughter as a killing that occurs because “of a sudden quarrel or in the heat of passion”.
The defendant killed someone because of a sudden quarrel or in the heat of passion if:
1. The defendant was provoked;
2. As a result of provocation, the defendant acted rashly and under the influence of intense emotion that obscured his reasoning or judgement;
AND
3. The provocation would have caused a peace officer of average disposition to act rashly and without due deliberation, that is, from passion rather than from judgement.
It has been reported that Judge Perry has sided with the prosecution's argument, and if asked again will state that the defendant's emotions could cloud his judgement meeting the standard for heat of passion.
As of now it is unclear if the “provocation” in question refers to the actions of other passengers on the Fruitvale BART platform or those of Officer Anthony Pirone (whose behavior on the platform that night has been criticized by many). Also uncertain is whether defense attorney Michael Rains’ assertion during closing arguments that his client wasn’t “thinking” but “acting” may backfire in his attempt to get former Officer Mehserle acquitted.
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LOS ANGELES-- After days of false starts, illnesses, and doctor's appointments, the jury in the murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle for the shooting death of Oscar Grant is embarking on an entire day of deliberations.
The jury, in session since 9:00 a.m., will continue to deliberate until the end of court business hours today at 4:00 p.m.
While questions have been brought up on social media about the condition of the jury- are they sickly, elderly, unserious?- these are mostly a biproduct of the general public's unfamiliarity with the jury system. The jury empaneled for this case has been described as thoroughly mundane and middle aged. In a vacuum of news it is natural to speculate that something big is going on to cause the delays, but the facts are far more banal.
The one thing that stands out is the letting go of original Juror #4 for a pre-arraigned vacation. This may seem strange, but the explanation lies with the original estimate of how long the trial was going to take. It was thought the actual trial would take only eight days, and that a verdict would be handed down before the July 4th weekend. The original Juror #4 was empaneled with this understanding: that his vacation (bought and paid for) would have no bearing on the trial. Time has proven this assumption to be wrong. One power the court doesn't have is the ability to force a juror to throw away the money they spent on travel; after all, they can't exactly afford to reimburse them for the cost.
Nor can the court keep a juror from a doctor appointment or from getting sick. Jurors are little more than glorified conscriptees, who are given a free lunch and a parking voucher, plucked out of their lives and then charged with figuring out what is just. That the court allows them to keep some part of their own lives from falling apart is a display of mercy on the part of the justice system.
Right now, with tension mounting around a lack of a verdict, the delays might seem wrong-headed and backwards. The next time you're called for jury duty you might just feel differently.
The takeaway for today: the jury (four white females, three white males, three Latino women, one Asian woman, and one male who has declined to state race) is finally getting down to business.
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LOS ANGELES-- Understand this: the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center-- which houses the court room of Judge Robert Perry where the trial of Johannes Mehserle is taking place-- is a concrete cage standing in the heart of Los Angeles’ Civic Center. Facts go in, but they have a hard time getting back out. As the jury in the Oscar Grant murder trial inches towards a verdict there is little official news from the court, and that official news often follows on the heels of the courthouse rumor mill.
Tuesday's surprise twist was when a juror called in sick, preventing deliberations from continuing. Yet the news of this delay did not reach the press through the official channel of the Public Information Office, but through the court house grapevine of LAPD officers and local media players whose connections put them on the inside track. A situation inevitably exacerbated by how thin the resources of the Public Information Office are spread.
Allan Parachini-- the veteran reporter and former ACLU spokesman who has headed the PIO since 2002-- has been downtown at the Justice Center nearly every day of the Mehserle trial acting as the court’s spokesman. Yesterday, however, he was charged with handling the media relations on an even higher profile, though certainly not higher stakes event: the probation hearing of starlet Lindsay Lohan miles away in Beverly Hills.
That the chief point of contact for the media on the Oscar Grant murder trial was dispatched to an entirely different area code to work a different trial underlines just how overloaded the LA Court system is. There are nearly 600 courtrooms in the LA Superior Courts system in 48 different buildings. There are only six members of the PIO team: Mr. Parachini and his five deputies.
This is the most difficult time of the trial for all who are following the case. With the case in the hands of the jury-- one that seems to have a number of medical issues-- all any of the trial observers can do is wait. For those of us who are waiting quite literally outside the courtroom doors, this involves keenly watching the other watchers while we all wait for the email that will notify us that a verdict has been reached: or that the jury has become deadlocked. A possibility no one wants to consider.
So let this be a reminder: it has been 18 months since that fateful New Year’s Day, a few atypical but not uncommon delays are far from the worst outcome imaginable.
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LOS ANGELES-- With closing arguments completed five days ago, there has yet to be a full day of deliberations in the murder trial of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle for the New Year’s Day 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant. A frustrated family of the deceased and tense residents of Oakland question when they will have closure in a trial that just doesn’t seem to end.
Grant’s uncle, Cepheus “Bobby” Johnson, says that the latest delay in jury deliberations-- Juror #3 had a pre-scheduled medical appointment that was only made public today-- is “disheartening.” This latest delay follows a lost day of deliberations Tuesday when one of the other jurors called in sick. Today, an Asian American woman replaced Juror #4, (described by reporters as an “East Indian looking man”) who had a previously planned vacation but had been empaneled anyway as the trial was expected to have reached a verdict before the July 4th weekend.
While the L.A. Superior Court’s public information office admits that these kind of juror issues are “not typical,” a spokeswoman says they are also well within the normal operating procedures of the court system and “not uncommon.” Online reactions bemoaning the latest delays reflect the broader issues at stake in the trial: the tense relations between the community and the justice system that produced former officer Mehserle.
As of today the jury has only two alternates left.
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LOS ANGELES - Deliberations have been postponed today in the Oscar Grant trial because a juror called in sick. Jurors began deliberating Friday afternoon, in the murder trial for Johannes Mehserle, the former BART cop who shot 22 year-old Grant on New Year's Day 2009. The case is expected to resume tomorrow at 9:00 AM when Judge Perry plans to seat a juror alternate to replace juror 4 who has a pre-scheduled vacation. Deliberations will begin anew tomorrow after that juror is seated.
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Youth Radio's Pendarvis Harshaw talks to Mayor Ron Dellums about renaming Fruitvale BART station in honor of Oscar Grant.
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With rumors swirling about anarchists planning violence in Oakland after a verdict in the trial of Johannes Mehserle, the former transit cop accused of murdering unarmed passenger Oscar Grant, Youth Radio wanted to hear from anarchists themselves.
We talked to self-identified anarchists Jesse (not his real name), age 29, and Aaron French, age 20, to do some truth checking on all the whispering, especially about the infamous “Black Bloc” which was featured in an email circulating in the Bay Area that warns that the group “frequently uses Molotov cocktails and arson during demonstrations. They wear ski masks, helmets, and body armor and attack police.”
However, neither Jesse nor Aaron dress in all black or carry around homemade bombs. And Jesse has an explanation for the black outfits. The Black Bloc term was coined in Germany in the 1980’s to describe a tactic: when everyone wears all black outfits, it is more difficult to keep track of what individuals are doing and whom to arrest for what.
But enough about the clothes. What about the philosophy?
Anarchist Philosophy
Anarchists are all about individualism, so it’s not easy to characterize them as a group. But here’s in a nutshell how Jesse and Aaron describe the philosophy:
“People around you are not in any position of privilege”
Basically, everyone’s equal and no one should have authority over anyone else. Jesse calls it “operating horizontally”, which is why many anarchists don’t like the police.
“Anarchists go out and protest for themselves”
As mentioned above, Jesse stresses that anarchists don’t identify as a group.
“Capitalism needs to fall”
Many protests that anarchists participate in are anti-capitalism, such as the World Trade Organization riots. Aaron sees capitalism as an “institution that is used as a tool of oppression.”
“If a decision doesn't affect you, then you shouldn't be making it."
Anarchists would argue that the way our government is structured is the opposite of this ideal (the judicial system is one example of that.) Jesse says that “we elect these professionals to tell us what it is that's best for us”.
Black Bloc
Aaron has first hand knowledge of the Black Bloc. He lives in Nebraska now, but he got caught up in a Black Bloc protest during the International Day of Climate Action March in Copenhagen at the United Nations Climate Summit last December.
“So basically we’re walking along and everyone around us starts masking up, covering their faces, donning gloves, black sweatshirts, black pants, black hats […] We’re walking by the Danish Parliament and people start throwing bricks and rocks, pulling stuff from their bags, smashing windows with long poles. And as we continue police start to follow us along and that’s when people started pulling out explosives, throw them at the police everything from huge fireworks to little small homemade bombs. And at that point the police started cracking down on the Black Bloc. At that point my friends and I dipped out because our goal that day was not to get arrested.”
Aaron says there is rationale behind these tactics, and it’s not just creating chaos. He says that “where the corporate media and news media gets it wrong is that this is not a mindless reaction to some random decision that’s being made. It’s actually war on capitalism and war on all these systems of oppression.”
Why Anarchists Care About Oscar Grant
Jesse is following the trial and plans to be at the protests after a verdict is announced. He said that police violence is just another example of the state having too much control. “The state uses what it can to keep control, kill, and exploit everyone around them.”
Aaron says if he were in Oakland, he would be at the protests too – for the same reasons: “(The Oscar Grant shooting) is a perfect example of police brutality. Police abuse the power they have given by us and by society, which I think is wrong in and of itself.”
But Black Bloc protests in the past touch on issues beyond just anger over police brutality. Jesse points to basic flaws in the whole judicial system itself. For example, the concept of a jury deciding the fate of Mehserle does not line up with the anarchist principles that he describes.
“We’re going to pretend that we have this national community, where these eight people who live 400 miles away can decide what justice is. The police and the state have created this process for us, instead of letting us create it ourselves.”
Jesse predicts however the protests go, that police will overpower the people. “The tendency is to take that control out of their hands,” he said. “I just plan to be there.”
A local anarchist call-to-action from a listserve email says “We'll leave it to the will of the people assembled to decide what goes down there.”
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