The retrial of former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing, who shot and killed Samuel DuBose in the summer of 2015, ended in a mistrial on Friday. As the New York Times accurately notes in its article about Judge Leslie Ghiz’s declaration, this is the third time this week that the trial of an ex-cop in the shooting death of a black man has resulted in no conviction. Jeronimo Yanez was found not guilty in the infamous Facebook Live shooting of Philando Castile last Friday, and Dominique Heaggan-Brown was acquitted of all charges in the death of Sylville Smith on Wednesday.
In a note passed to the judge after 30 hours of deliberations, the jury claimed they were “almost evenly split regarding our final votes.” As a result, Judge Ghiz ruled it a mistrial. Intriguingly, the first trial of Tensing in the shooting death of DuBose also ended in a hung jury, thereby paving the way for his retrial and Friday’s verdict. And to make matters even more complicated, the case against the former University of Cincinnati police officer include video evidence captured by the body camera worn by Tensing himself, which depicts in full his fateful encounter with DuBose a few blocks from campus.
On July 19th, 2015, DuBose was driving just south of campus with Tensing spotted his green 1998 Honda Accord, which was lacking a front license plate. After initially confronting the driver about the missing plate, Tensing asked him for his drivers license and inquired about what turned out to be a bottle of gin on the passenger side floor. After a brief, albeit blurry quarrel, the office fired a single shot at DuBose. Subsequent reports by Tensing and two fellow officers indicated the driver had tried to leave the scene and ended up dragging the former cop for a time.
(Via New York Times)