Attorney for officer in shooting case: Don’t seek retrial

By TOM FOREMAN Jr.
Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, NC (AP) – One of the attorneys representing a white police officer whose voluntary manslaughter trial ended with a hung jury says the North Carolina attorney general should forgo pursuit of a mistrial.

George Laughrun said Wednesday at a news conference he hopes Attorney General Roy Cooper will decide it’s time to move on. Laughrun noted that it took a second grand jury to indict Officer Randall Kerrick, and eight jurors voted to acquit him.

Kerrick was charged in the shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell, who was black. It happened as Kerrick and two other officers responded to a breaking and entering call.

After three weeks of testimony and four days of deliberations, the jury couldn’t overcome its 8-4 deadlock, leading Judge Robert C. Ervin to declare the mistrial.

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