Judge keeps ex-cop’s 20-year sentence for killing Black man

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – A judge has upheld a 20-year prison sentence for a white former police officer in the killing of an unarmed Black man in South Carolina. Federal judge Richard Gergel ruled Monday that ex-North Charleston officer Michael Slager’s lawyer did not do a poor job. Slager had appealed his sentence, saying his lawyer never told him about a plea offer from prosecutors that could have cut years off his eventual prison term. Gergel ruled he didn’t believe Slager’s claim that he didn’t know about the offer. Slager pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge for shooting Walter Scott in the back five times in 2015 as he ran away from a traffic stop.