Criminal Trial
On January 12, Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff filed a complaint for murder and an Alameda County Superior Court Judge then signed a fugitive arrest warrant. Mehserle was arrested January 13 at a friend's home in the Zephyr Cove, Nevada, area near Lake Tahoe where his attorney said he had gone after receiving death threats in the Bay Area. Mehserle waived extradition, and was held in protective custody at the Santa Rita jail in Dublin, California. Mehserle pleaded not guilty at his arraignment January 15. On January 30, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson set bail for Mehserle at $3 million. A week later, with the help of fundraising from the police union, Mehserle posted bail.
Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff refused to speculate whether Mehserle would be charged with first or second degree murder, saying "What I feel the evidence indicates is an unlawful killing done by an intentional act and from the evidence we have there's nothing that would mitigate that to something lower than a murder." Orloff noted Mehserle's refusal to explain himself as a reason for charging him with murder, rather than manslaughter. Orloff said he would fight any motion to change venue for the trial.
Mehserle retained Pleasant Hill criminal defense attorney Michael Rains, who previously successfully represented one of the Oakland Riders. Before Mehserle retained Rains, Rains told the Associated Press that it could be difficult to prosecute Mehserle for murder because the law discourages "second-guessing and hindsighting" of police officers, who tend to be favorably viewed by juries. Mehserle's defense was paid for by a statewide fund for police officers.
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Famous quotes containing the words criminal trial, criminal and/or trial:
“A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.”
—Clifford Irving (b. 1930)
“How many condemnations I have witnessed more criminal than the crime!”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Every political system is an accumulation of habits, customs, prejudices, and principles that have survived a long process of trial and error and of ceaseless response to changing circumstances. If the system works well on the whole, it is a lucky accident—the luckiest, indeed, that can befall a society.”
—Edward C. Banfield (b. 1916)