Trial
After an inquest, a coroner's jury recommended homicide charges be brought against all five officers, but the Allegheny County district attorney at the time, Bob Colville, chose only to file the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter against Mullholland, Albert and Vojtas.
The first trial of Mullholland and Albert ended in mistrial after Allegheny County Medical Examiner Cyril Wecht made what were ruled to be prejudicial statements during his testimony. The judge assigned to the case, David R. Cashman, ruled that the case could not be retried. This ruling was overturned by the state Supreme Court, Cashman was removed from the case, and Mullholland and Albert were re-tried. The second trial was again deemed a mistrial when the jury deadlocked, 11-1, with the lone vote for conviction coming from the one black jury member. Following this second mistrial, Mullholland and Albert's attorneys successfully argued that a third trial would constitute double jeopardy for their clients, and charges against the men were dropped.
Officer John Vojtas, who was tried separately, was found not guilty by a jury with no minority members. He was permitted to return to work as a police officer in the Brentwood department and received a promotion.
Despite community pressure in both Pittsburgh and Syracuse, the Department of Justice declined to bring a civil rights action against the officers and police departments involved.
Read more about this topic: Johnny Gammage
Famous quotes containing the word trial:
“I have proved by actual trial that a letter, that takes an hour to write, takes only about 3 minutes to read!”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“A man who has no office to go to—I don’t care who he is—is a trial of which you can have no conception.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)