A mistrial was declared Friday in the case of a Detroit police officer charged with a misdemeanor in the fatal shooting of a sleeping 7-year-old girl.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway issued the ruling after jurors deadlocked in the trial of Officer Joseph Weekley, who killed Aiyana Stanley-Jones during a bungled raid in 2010, the Huffington Post reports.
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Jurors began deliberations Tuesday on the charge of careless discharge of a firearm causing death, which carries a sentence of up to two years, the report says. The outcome was the second mistrial in the case. The first trial was in 2013.
Roland Lawrence, chairman of the Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee, called the trial a “travesty and a comedy,” the news site reports, citing a statement.
“This trial is a travesty because the judicial system allowed the death of a child by a well-trained police agency to go unpunished,” he said, according to the Post. “It is comedy because the people of [southeast] Michigan actually think that Aiyana’s family is responsible for Aiyana’s death.”
The officer began a trial last month facing an additional charge of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. But a judge dismissed the charge, citing a lack of evidence.
During a raid being recorded for the police reality-TV show The First 48, Aiyana was killed after officers burst through the door of her family’s home. Weekley reportedly said he accidentally fired a shot when the child’s grandmother reached for his gun. The grandmother, Mertilla Jones, denied the allegation.
Read more at the Huffington Post.
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