Update to this previous story.
Via WISTV:
The foreman of the jury hearing the murder trial of former North Charleston Police officer Michael Slager says he believes race was not a factor in the jury’s failure to meet a decision.
Dorsey Montgomery II appeared in an exclusive interview on NBC Today Thursday morning along with his attorney Ross Miller.
“Due to the society that we live in, you know, race will always be a factor,” Montgomery said. “But at that point in time, I do believe that some jurors may have had that in their minds. But the majority of them didn’t have anything in their minds in reference to race that may have played a factor in the decision.”[…]
At first we looked at the the evidence that has been presented, and looking at the evidence that has been presented and looking at the video, of course the video was something that’s very shocking,” Montgomery said of a video of the shooting taken by a bystander. “So, not knowing everything that we know now, of course, we can speculate. But after seeing the video and seeing the evidence, we understand just a little bit different now.”
Montgomery admitted that before the jury began deliberating, he was personally prepared to convict Slager of murder.
“At that point in time, yes. Initially it was going to be murder, but after we looked at the evidence and read the laws and looked at the things that were presented to us by the judge, we had to come to find out that he didn’t do anything malicious. He had manslaughter. When we had — when he had a brief disturbance, he had a reason for that moment. So based on the law, that would be classified under manslaughter — voluntary manslaughter.”
“That’s why I’m here to correct that and speak up for the jurors who were with me in the deliberation room. ‘Cause I come to find out that the media misconstrued that particular letter. When that letter was submitted on that Friday, it was because we had one individual who was just deadlocked and he wasn’t changing. But yet we had five other individuals who were undecided. And so because of that, we went and when the judge asked me, I believe we could have deliberated just a little bit more to see if we could sway that one particular juror and get those who were undecided to make a decision.”