USC Law Professor Calls N. Charleston Shooting Unjustified

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Columbia, S.C. (WOLO) — A USC law professor is weighing in this week on the North Charleston shooting. It’s the chilling video seen by millions around the world showing North Charleston police officer Michael Slager shooting 50-year old Walter Scott as he tries to run away. “It’s disturbing,” said Professor Seth Stoughton. “I think the Police Chief called it sickening and he’s right.” Stoughton called the actions of Officer Slager unjustified. “For this shooting to be justified, we would have to get a completely different set of facts about what happened before the video started rolling and no publicly reported information suggests that’s the case,” said Stoughton. Stoughton said the Supreme Court gives guidance when it comes to appropriate use of lethal force. “It’s essentially a fear of death or great bodily harm standard,” explained Stoughton. “If the officer reasonably believes the suspect is placing them or someone else at risk of death or bodily harm then lethal force is justified.” But in this case, Stoughton believes that’s hard to prove given what the video shows. “It’s very difficult to say that an officer fears for his life when someone is running away from him, particularly running away from him without a weapon,” said Stoughton. For that reason, Stoughton said it could be hard for the defense to argue the shooting of Walter Scott was justified. “I would expect the defense to focus on mitigating the homicide murder to a lesser degree of homicide as opposed to trying to show that the shooting itself was justified, that would be very difficult thing to do in this case.”