Sentencing for the former Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer recently convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Oscar Grant has been pushed back to later this year, and his attorney says he will argue to drop a gun-enhancement conviction.
Johannes Mehserle, who is white, shot the 22-year-old Grant, a black man, dead at an Oakland train station platform on Jan. 1, 2009. The trial was moved to Los Angeles County Superior court from Alameda County last fall due to extensive pre-trial publicity, concerns about fairness, and racial tensions.
The verdict on Mehserle came on July 8, and Judge Robert Perry initially set an Aug. 6 date for sentencing. But Perry later granted Mehserle's defense attorney, Michael Rains, a postponement to prepare for arguments.
Motions and sentencing are now scheduled to take place Nov. 5 at 8:30 a.m., according to the Los Angeles Superior Court's public information office.
Rains, who spoke to members of the media recently, said he was disappointed but not overly surprised that Mehserle had been found guilty, adding that he felt that the verdict reached in the case was inconsistent.
According to the Oakland Tribune, Rains said his argument to Judge Perry will be "... there was no negligence in the case," and that Perry should dismiss the jury's finding that Mehserle was guilty of using a gun in the commission of a crime, also known as a gun-enhancement charge.
"This is a typical defense move; he's basically doing a motion for a new trial, in which he's saying that the jury came up with an incorrect verdict," said Nana Gyamfi, a Los Angeles-based criminal defense attorney. "He will possibly argue to the judge that the finding of criminal negligence is inconsistent with the finding of intent to use a firearm, meaning 'involuntary manslaughter' is a finding that's just above 'it was a mistake.' If someone is intending to use a firearm under the circumstances that Mehserle did, that's not 'just above (a) mistake.' "
In spite of this, however, Gyamfi said that she views the verdict and the finding to be consistent.
"It's like when someone drives drunk and kills someone. That person intended to drink, and (he) intended to drive," she said. "But (he) did not intend to kill someone."
Mehserle released a letter of apology to the public through his lawyer, dated July 4, about four days before the jury returned their verdict. In the letter, he expressed remorse for killing Grant. Available online at http://sfg.ly/9FEkMF, it partly states: "I know a daughter has lost a father and a mother has lost a son. It saddens me knowing that my actions cost Mr. Grant his life, no words express how truly sorry I am."
Cephus "Bobby" Johnson, Grant's uncle, expressed that the letter was insincere.
Speaking at a press conference in Oakland days after the verdict, he said, "...This letter that was not addressed to Wanda Johnson, Sophina Mesa (fiancée of Oscar Grant) or Tatiana, Oscar's daughter, or even to us as a family ... this letter, let's be clear, was not addressed to us; it was addressed to the public ... . This is a ploy ... just like he faked a cry on the stand, he's sending out a fake letter to the public ... It's garbage."
Mehserle could possibly face a maximum of 14 years in state prison. If the gun-enhancement charge were dismissed, the maximum amount of time he could receive would be reduced to just four years.
Without the gun enhancement charge, it is also possible that Mehserle could receive probation.
Wanda Johnson, the mother of Oscar Grant, expressed her opinions via e-mail.
"I figured they would try to push it back as far as they can in order to try to say, time served," she said, later adding, "the whole system is unjust."
In another related development, the U.S. Justice Department will conduct its own investigation of the killing in conjunction with the United States attorney's Office and the FBI.
Thandisizwe Chimurenga is an contributing writer to the L.A. Watts Times.
Photo by John Kelvin Fields.
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