Mistrial declared in South Carolina police shooting

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A South Carolina judge declared a mistrial Monday after a jury deadlocked in the murder trial of a white former police officer charged in the shooting death of an unarmed black motorist.

Cell phone video taken by a bystander that showed Walter Scott, 50, being shot in the back five times by Michael Slager was shown widely in the media and on the Internet and shocked the country, inflaming the national debate about how blacks are treated by law enforcement officers.

A panel of one black and 11 white jurors — who had seemed close to a verdict to convict on Friday, with apparently only one holdout — said Monday they were unable to reach a unanimous decision after deliberating more than 22 hours over four days.

Prosecutors said they intend to retry Slager, who also faces a trial in federal court next year on charges of depriving Scott of his civil rights.

A mistrial was declared Nov. 12 when a jury in Cincinnati couldn’t reach a verdict in the case of a former campus police officer who was also charged with shooting a black motorist.