Walter Scott’s Character Scrutinized in Trial of Officer Who Killed Him
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The judge faced the jury on Thursday morning and spoke solemnly about “what many have called the greatest justice system ever created.” Then the murder trial of a member of the most visible arm of the justice system — a police officer — began in earnest.
To the chief prosecutor, the officer, Michael T. Slager, was an aberration of American policing, a malevolent lawman who “let his sense of authority get the better of him” when he shot and killed Walter L. Scott in April 2015. To Mr. Slager’s lawyer, the death of Mr. Scott, who was black, was an “awful but lawful” killing by a white officer who patrolled a troubled neighborhood in North Charleston and believed he was in danger.
Both sides portrayed Mr. Scott as an imperfect figure whose own behavior contributed to his killing, which was recorded on video by a bystander and emerged as one of the most wrenching symbols of the national debate over policing and race. For the jury of 11 white people and a black man, the questions that have swirled around Mr. Slager for nearly 19 months, including whether he planted evidence or misled investigators, have effectively been reduced to one: whether he opened fire with “malice aforethought.”
“Provocation is not the same as justification,” said Scarlett A. Wilson, the solicitor for Charleston County, who repeatedly used her 25-minute opening statement to accuse Mr. Slager of dishonesty.
Mr. Slager’s lawyer, Andrew J. Savage III, said the case was a complex one clouded by the prosecution’s reliance on “pure speculation to fit the narrative that the state wants you to believe.”
“He didn’t just shoot somebody,” Mr. Savage said of Mr. Slager, adding that the officer would have been right to worry about whether Mr. Scott posed a threat when he fled on foot after being stopped for a broken taillight.
The state trial of Mr. Slager, who is also facing civil rights charges in Federal District Court, could last well into November, and he could be sentenced to life in prison if he is convicted of murder. (Ms. Wilson, citing the absence of aggravating factors required by South Carolina law, is not seeking the death penalty.)
The fatal encounter between the men has been broadly dissected since a bystander recorded Mr. Slager firing eight rounds at Mr. Scott’s back, hitting him five times. Later in the video, Mr. Slager is seen dropping an item, which Ms. Wilson identified as the officer’s Taser device, near Mr. Scott.
Mr. Slager’s defense team has argued that a scuffle before the recording began, which prompted Mr. Slager to use his Taser, placed the officer at risk. But the video is expected to be central to the criminal case, as it was in the decisions to arrest and fire Mr. Slager, and for the City of North Charleston to agree to a $6.5 million settlement with Mr. Scott’s family.
For much of Thursday, discussion in the courtroom centered on the life of Mr. Scott and his choice to run from the police.
“If Walter Scott had stayed in that car, he wouldn’t have been shot,” Ms. Wilson said in an opening statement. “He paid the extreme consequence for his conduct. He lost his life for his foolishness.”
Mr. Savage made frequent references to Mr. Scott’s child support debts, which prosecutors and Mr. Scott’s family members believe led him to flee out of fear of being arrested, as well as his criminal history and drug use.
Prosecutors were plainly aware that such a narrative could have powerful effects on the jury, and Mr. Scott’s family, which on Thursday dismissed complaints about the panel’s makeup, expected that his past would be fodder at the trial. In an interview last week, Mr. Scott’s brother, Anthony Scott, predicted that Mr. Savage would try “to belittle Walter and bring his character down when his character is not in play.”
But even as she raised the matter of Mr. Scott’s actions after he was stopped, Ms. Wilson tried to redirect attention toward Mr. Slager.
“His first instinct after the shots were fired and he cuffed a dead Walter Scott was to stage — to stage a scene,” Ms. Wilson said. “His first instinct wasn’t to give CPR. It wasn’t to give first aid. It was to stage.”
It would ultimately fall to the jury, Ms. Wilson said, to “bring accountability to Michael Slager for his choices.”
Mr. Savage, who referred to “the climate of this country and the focus of the media” after police-involved killings in places like Baltimore; Cleveland; and Ferguson, Mo., asked the jurors to concentrate on Mr. Scott’s actions and how Mr. Slager might have interpreted them. He depicted Mr. Slager as an officer with an employment record of “exceptional excellence,” and he suggested that Mr. Scott had been a clear danger.
“He didn’t just run,” Mr. Savage said. “He physically and forcefully resisted to the extent that they were both fighting on the ground.”
Testimony will resume Friday, when the prosecution is expected to call its ninth witness. No one who testified on Thursday, including Mr. Scott’s mother and one of his sons, was present for the shooting.
But some witnesses, in terms sober and pointed, addressed its aftermath.
Ms. Wilson asked Pierre Fulton, who was riding with Mr. Scott when Mr. Slager stopped them, why his friend had run from the police.
“That’s a question I would like to ask him,” Mr. Fulton replied. “Unfortunately, he’s not here.”
