3 Georgia deputies found not guilty of murder of Black man
There will never be a time like seeing it police get away with taking a life will not anger us as a people. We have seen enough. We have heard enough. We have had enough. Unfortunately, law enforcement officers will probably never say they have enough of them kill us.
According to The Telegraphthree Washington County Sheriff's deputies in Macon, Georgia, Rhett Scott, Henry Lee Copeland, and Michael Howell, have all been acquitted of murder after a 2017 incident where they shot Eurie Martin, a Black man, “15 or 16” times before he died.
A local resident called 911 to report Martin, who suffers from schizophrenia and heart disease, as a suspicious person after he asked her for a bowl of water after a 30-mile walk from his Milledgeville home to Sandersville. When deputies arrived on scene, they say Martin was “uncooperative” and tried to flee from them during the interview. A struggle ensued, and the taser was deployed and Martin would eventually die in police custody.
Macon.com reports that during the trial the jury could not be convinced that the tasing directly resulted in Martin's death. The coroner's report listed cardioarrhythmia as the cause of death, but did not mention the taser. Attorneys for the deputies argued they had no prior knowledge of Martin's physical and mental health conditions before hiring him. Like so many black people who were killed by police, Martin had a terrible realization that death was imminent and shouted: “They're killing me! They're killing me!” as his last words before dying moments later.
If there is any silver lining to this story, it is that after years of insulation from consequences by the “stand your ground” statute, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned that decision and made way for justice to be served. Hopefully, that decision sets a precedent for other “blue lives” who try to break accountability in the future.
