Police officer who shot unarmed black motorist as he fled sentenced to 20 years in prison

Former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager.
(Image credit: Grace Beahm-Pool/Getty Images)

After pleading guilty in May to a federal civil rights offense in the death of Walter Scott, former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder and obstruction of justice, The Post and Courier reports. In April 2015, Slager fatally shot the unarmed Scott as he fled a routine traffic stop.

Three days after the shooting, a witness posted a video online of Slager shooting Scott multiple times in the back as Scott ran away. The footage of Scott's death sparked protests and demonstrations in South Carolina and across the country, and Slager was arrested on a murder charge shortly after the clip went viral.

Scott's youngest son had asked U.S. District Judge David Norton to sentence Slager to life in prison, but Norton instead opted to sentence Slager on charges of second-degree murder, which holds a possible sentence of 19 to 24 years, instead of life in prison for voluntary manslaughter. Norton issued the final sentence of 20 years behind bars.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Last December, a state murder trial for Slager ended in a mistrial; those charges were later dropped after Slager pleaded guilty to the federal charge of violating Scott's civil rights. Anthony Scott, the older brother of the deceased Scott, told reporters that he had accepted Norton's decision. "At the end of the day, there's another judge [Slager] has to face."

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Kelly O'Meara Morales

Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.