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CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Latest in the trial of a white former South Carolina police officer charged with murder in the shooting of an unarmed black motorist (all times local):
6:15 p.m.
The jury in the Michael Slager murder trial is going home for the night.
The panel of 11 whites and one black has deliberated for more than nine hours over two days in the case of the fired South Carolina patrolman charged in the shooting death of Walter Scott.
Scott was shot five times in the back as he fled from a traffic stop in April of last year in a shooting captured on cellphone video.
Before the jury went home, they had a question for the judge: the legal difference between fear and passion.
The judge has told the jurors they can consider a lesser charge of voluntary homicide, the taking of another life in the heat of passion.
Slager testified that he feared for his life when he said Scott wrestled with him, got control of his Taser and pointed it at him.
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4:30 p.m.
Attorneys for Michael Slager are asking a South Carolina judge to delay the former patrolman's sentencing if he is convicted in the shooting death of Walter Scott, a black motorist who was shot fleeing a traffic stop.
Even though jurors are still deliberating, the attorneys filed a motion asking that if Slager is convicted, sentencing be delayed until a probation report is compiled. Slager is charged with murder but the judge has said jurors can return a lesser verdict of voluntary manslaughter.
The motion says that delaying sentencing would help the judge and provide "certain details of the defendant's life, background, upbringing, mental state, physical condition and other factors."
Generally in South Carolina someone convicted of a crime is immediately sentenced by a judge.
Attorneys have not yet discussed the motion in open court.
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3:55 p.m.
Jurors will be provided transcripts of the testimony that former patrolman Michael Slager gave this week during his murder trial in South Carolina.
They will also be provided a copy of the testimony of Angela Peterson, the lead South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent who investigated the shooting death of 50-year-old Walter Scott.
The jury of 11 whites and one black had deliberated more than six hours over two days when Judge Clifton Newman called attorneys into the courtroom about Thursday afternoon.
He said the jurors had asked for the transcripts and the attorneys had no objections.
Slager is charged in the death of Scott, who was shot five times in the back fleeing a traffic stop last year. The shooting was captured on dramatic cellphone video that stunned the nation.
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9:55 a.m.
Jurors have resumed deliberations in the trial of a former South Carolina patrolman charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black motorist.
The jury is weighing the case of Michael Slager, the former North Charleston patrolman charged in the death of 50-year-old Walter Scott. Scott was shot five times in the back as he ran from a traffic stop in April 2015.
The shooting was captured by a bystander on dramatic cellphone video that stunned the nation.
The jury deliberated for about an hour Wednesday evening after receiving instructions from Circuit Judge Clifton Newman.
They jurors can acquit Slager, find him guilty of murder or find him guilty of a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.
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4:30 a.m.
Jurors in the Michael Slager murder trial will resume deliberating the fate of the white former South Carolina patrolman charged with killing a black motorist.
Slager is charged in the shooting death of 50-year-old Walter Scott, who was shot five times in the back while running from a traffic stop in April of last year.
Although Slager was charged with murder after cellphone video of the shooting surfaced, Circuit Judge Clifton Newman told jurors Wednesday that they could consider a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.
The jury of one black man and 11 whites will return to the Charleston County Courthouse to resume deliberations Thursday. The judge instructed them in the law and they began their discussions late Wednesday, considering the case for about an hour before breaking for the night.
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