"We just did not buy it": the story of an officer in the Laquan McDonald case did not convince the jury

Many observers did not expect this case to be decided by a jury, especially not in Cook County, Chicago, where police-community relations are strained and indignation provoked by death of Laquan transformed the local government.

When selecting the jury, each party accused the other of racial discrimination. Prosecutors said the defense lawyers unfairly excluded Black people, including a woman who lived near the Laquan neighborhood and whose son had recently been shot dead. Defense lawyers accused prosecutors of excluding whites, including a young man who was training to become a police officer in Chicago. In a county where he is black at almost 25% and in a case where the race was central, only one African-American juror was sitting.

Once the testimonies have begun, we have sometimes referred to race, but we have rarely mentioned it explicitly. The only black person on the jury, a FedEx truck driver, said she perceived a racial overtone when defense counsel suggested that the shooting would have been unjustified if it had been a crime. a scout instead of the knife worn by Laquan McDonald.

"I thought it was really inappropriate," she said. "We have gone beyond all that. We did not come here because of race. We came here for good and bad. "

During the trial, the jurors stated that they took the trouble to avoid following the information, sometimes even changing train cars to get to the courthouse if another passenger read a newspaper. One of them described the experience as "hostages but also victims at the same time". Several jurors said that they knew how important the case was for Chicago, but that they did not allow this knowledge to influence their verdict.

"I did not sleep for three weeks," said the forewoman. "I was constantly thinking about it, just because of its impact, and because every day we went in and watched two families. We saw the family of Jason Van Dyke and Laquan McDonald's. "

On the 16 aggravated drums – one for each ball – some jurors initially thought that maybe two of the shots were justified. In the end, the jurors agreed that each shot was illegal. And on the last charge, the official misconduct, they returned a verdict of not guilty because they said that the agent Van Dyke thought he was guilty of the offense. acquitted himself of his task that night.