Off-duty cop who killed daughter's boyfriend faces 3rd trial

(AP) — A former Oklahoma police officer who said he was trying to protect his daughter when he fatally shot her black boyfriend in 2014 is on trial for the third time in seven months, after jurors in previous trials couldn't decide whether he was guilty of murder.

Experts say Shannon Kepler's case illustrates a broad unwillingness to convict police officers, particularly in cases involving fatal shootings — and even when the lines between officer and civilian are blurred.

While one jury found the 57-year-old former Tulsa police officer guilty of recklessly using a firearm, it was unable to agree on whether that crime led to the far more serious conviction of first-degree murder.

"Police officers are viewed in America as they can do no wrong, black or white," said Tulsa civil rights activist Marq Lewis, who described what he called a "cultural marketing" of the infallible, crime-busting police officer.

Even with video — whether from a squad car, an officer's body camera or a bystander's cellphone — all the rules change once an officer is in the courtroom, said David N. Dorfman, a criminal law professor at Pace University and a former defense attorney in New York.

Defense attorney Richard O'Carroll previously has said that Kepler was just trying to protect his daughter, Lisa Kepler, because she had left her father's home and was staying in a crime-ridden neighborhood.