By Nathan Layne
(Reuters) – Jurors began their fourth day of deliberations on Thursday in the manslaughter trial of Kimberly Potter, the former Minnesota police officer who mistook her handgun for her Taser and fatally shot Black motorist Daunte Wright during a traffic stop.
The jury, which has now deliberated for about 24 hours, restarted their work at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis on Thursday at 8:40 a.m. CST (1440 GMT).
The jury submitted a question to the judge on Tuesday suggesting it was struggling to come to a consensus on whether to convict or acquit Potter on two manslaughter charges.
Jack Rice, a criminal defense attorney based in St. Paul, Minnesota who is not involved in the case, said he believed the two likeliest outcomes are a deadlocked jury, which could prompt the judge to declare a mistrial, or an acquittal.
“I’m leaning towards a hung jury at this point, partially because it’s day four,” Rice said, adding that he suspected there are members on the jury who “refuse to convict this cop for this mistake.”
Judge Regina Chu, who is presiding over the trial, has told jurors they would not be called in on Friday, Christmas Eve, meaning they would return on Monday if they do not conclude their work on Thursday.
Potter, 49, has pleaded not guilty to first- and second-degree manslaughter charges, which carry maximum sentences of 15 and 10 years, respectively. Potter said she thought she was drawing her Taser when she shot Wright in the chest with her 9 mm handgun during a traffic stop on April 11.
In their closing arguments on Monday morning, prosecutors said Potter acted recklessly and with “culpable negligence” in drawing the wrong weapon, while the defense argued that Wright caused his own death by resisting arrest and attempting to flee, and that Potter was justified in using force.
Potter is white and the shooting of Wright triggered several nights of protests outside the police station in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis, with critics calling it another example of police brutality against Black Americans.
The incident occurred just a few miles north of where Derek Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer, was at the same time standing trial https://www.reuters.com/world/us/jurors-resume-deliberations-derek-chauvin-murder-trial-2021-04-20 in the case of George Floyd, a Black man whose 2020 death during an arrest set off racial justice protests in many U.S. cities. Chauvin was convicted of murder.
(reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Alistair Bell)
