After convicting the killer cop who took Akai Gurley’s life in a dimly lit stairwell of East New York’s Pink Houses on the night of Nov. 20, 2014, some of Peter Liang’s peers explained why they found him guilty of second-degree manslaughter and official misconduct last month.
“The shot, that was the most important part of this case,” said juror No. 10, Carlton Screen, 69, the lone African-American panelist. “From the experts, through their testimony, a shot cannot be discharged unless your finger is on the trigger. If the shot never occurred, we wouldn’t be talking now. Because it’s hard to pull the trigger. We all tried it.”
Forensic experts testified that Liang’s gun required 11.5 pounds of pressure to engage the trigger, enabling the gun to shoot.
“I believe that it was a mistake he made, putting his finger on the trigger,” said juror No. 9, requesting not to be identified, adding that all the jurors believed Liang did not intend to harm anyone, yet an innocent man was still killed.
Defense attorneys insisted that Liang had reason to draw his gun that night and that he fired by mistake. However, Screen said the jury of seven men and five women didn’t buy that.
“I really pray for Liang,” Screen said. “I didn’t want to convict him, but he needed to be held accountable. We took notes on the law, made a timeline, used charts to eliminate choices we made. We wanted to evaluate everything and not erase.”
“We tried every possible way to figure out the evidence,” added the 62-year-old ninth juror.
Liang testified that he was startled by the sound of a door, causing his gun to go off.
“Each juror handled the gun and we all tried the trigger,” said Screen. “It’s not easy to pull the trigger. We went through testimonies of both Liang and Landau, and we went through testimonies from the experts of the police department and witnesses, and we went through the laws that the judge presented to us. We went through it thoroughly.”
“The fact that he was arguing in the hallway for four minutes instead of calling his supervisor on the radio was really key for us,” said juror No. 8, who also wanted to remain anonymous.
Prosecutor Joseph Alexis suggested a possible “cover-up” when Liang testified he went looking for the shell casing before calling anyone—violating the NYPD’s guidelines.
Juror No. 9 questioned why Landau prevented Liang from calling their supervisor.
“The potential cover-up started with Landau, but once there was a victim, the cover-up was over,” juror No. 9 said.
The cops’ failure to perform CPR on Gurley while an untrained Melissa Butler did so was never a factor.
They took two votes at the end of their 17 hours of deliberations. The first vote was 10-2 to convict.
“This was probably the most difficult decision I have ever made in my life,” said juror No. 9.
Because the two rookie cops never attempted to assist Gurley, there was less dispute over the official misconduct charge.
“His partner [Liang] sold him up the river,” juror No. 9 suggested. “From point one, the partner threw him under the bus.”
Screen and the two anonymous jurors agreed the decision was tough. However, they said they followed protocol.
“I feel like justice was made for them,” juror No. 8 indicated. “Sadly, there are no winners here, but at least something was done.”
Kudos were given to Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson, who many feel properly presented the necessary evidence to get the conviction.
Activists say the two cops neglecting to immediately investigate the errant shot, as well as their failure to provide medical aid to Gurley, surely influenced the jurors’ decision in securing the convictions.
Prosecutors portrayed Liang as a frightened, trigger-happy rookie cop who couldn’t cope with the pressure of patrolling the projects.
“There are proud, brave cops who go out every day and patrol every day and every night to keep us safe,” Alexis said. “We honor those cops, we applaud those cops, but Peter Liang falls short of that. Peter Liang is not one of those cops.”
Gurley’s family released a statement: “We want justice beyond the courtroom. We will keep pushing for the systemic changes we need to end police violence for good.”
Liang’s attorneys plan to appeal the verdict.