"Mistrial in case of ex-chief who shot unarmed man" New York Times Syndicate January 14, 2015
ATLANTA — A South Carolina judge declared a mistrial Tuesday after a jury said it could not reach a verdict in the murder trial of a former police chief charged in the 2011 death of an unarmed black man.
Judge Edgar W. Dickson made his ruling after he had urged jurors late Monday to reach a consensus about the guilt or innocence of Richard J. Combs, the former chief in Eutawville.
During the trial, Combs had insisted he fired three shots only when he feared that Bernard Bailey, who had an outstanding warrant, had decided to use his Chevrolet Silverado pickup as a weapon against him. By Tuesday it had become clear that his defense had resonated with at least a fraction of the jury of nine women and three men.
Although Combs is white and Bailey was black, the trial did not involve allegations of racially motivated police misconduct similar to those that have swirled around the deaths of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York.
Instead, David M. Pascoe Jr. and other prosecutors tried to depict Combs as a spiteful police officer who overstepped his authority in town.
Pascoe said he would evaluate the case and expected to seek a retrial.
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