Light Sentence for U.S. Black Teen Murder Riles Family

Date: 19 January 2019 - 21:35

News ID: ۶۲۲۱۷

CHICAGO (AP) — The explosive video of a white Chicago officer shooting a black teenager 16 times shocked consciences around the world with footage of Laquan McDonald getting gunned down as he walked away from police.
The graphic images of McDonald crumpling to the street while bullets kept striking him stirred expectations that the officer might be convicted in the killing and pay a heavy price in prison time.
The verdict came in October — a rare murder conviction for an officer in an on-duty shooting. But on Friday the sentence of less than seven years for Jason Van Dyke — and the possibility that he may serve only half of that — led McDonald’s family and at least one activist to question whether justice had been done and the right message sent to other officers.
William Calloway, who was instrumental in the legal battle that led to the release of the dashcam video in 2015, described the penalty as "a slap in the face to us and a slap on the wrist” for Van Dyke.
The sentencing came a day after a different judge acquitted three officers accused of lying about the shooting to protect Van Dyke, who was probably the first Chicago officer ever found guilty in the shooting of an African-American. That verdict also disappointed many Chicagoans who hoped convictions would help eradicate a code-of-silence culture that dates back decades among officers in the nation’s third-largest city.
Van Dyke, 40, was convicted of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery — one for each bullet fired at the 17-year-old McDonald.
McDonald’s family lamented that the penalty was too light. His great uncle said the sentence reduced McDonald’s life to that of "a second-class citizen” and "suggests to us that there are no laws on the books for a black man that a white man is bound to honor.”
The sentence was less than half of the penalty that had been sought by prosecutors, who asked for 18 to 20 years.
The prison term also was a fraction of what Van Dyke could have faced had he been convicted of first-degree murder, which carried a mandatory minimum of 45 years in prison.
Judges typically rebuke defendants during sentencings, even for much lesser crimes, and they often explain why they imposed the sentence they did. But Judge Vincent Gaughan did neither in his brief comments from the bench.
The issue of race loomed over the case for more than four years, although it was rarely raised at trial. One of the only instances was during opening statements, when the special prosecutor told jurors that Van Dyke saw "a black boy walking down the street” who had "the audacity to ignore the police.”
On Friday, several black motorists testified that the officer used a racial slur and excessive force during traffic stops in the years before the shooting.