On Wednesday night, after more than five hours of deliberation, a jury in Dallas County, Texas, sentenced former Balch Springs Police Officer Roy Oliver to 15 years in prison for the fatal shooting of unarmed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards in April 2017. Oliver, 38, had been convicted of murder on Tuesday, the first police officer convicted of murder in Dallas County since 1973. Edwards is black and Oliver white.
Oliver and his partner, Tyler Gross, had been sent to investigate underage drinking at a party, and Oliver fired five shots from his AK-15 rifle into the car Edwards was riding in as it left the party. Oliver said he believed Gross' life was in danger, but Gross disagreed at the trial and body-camera footage showed the car driving away from the officers when Oliver shot Edwards. Oliver was fired and arrested days after the incident. He had faced up to life in prison.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
-
The vast horizons of the Puna de AtacamaThe Week Recommends The ‘dramatic and surreal’ landscape features volcanoes, fumaroles and salt flats
-
Asylum hotels: everything you need to knowThe Explainer Using hotels to house asylum seekers has proved extremely unpopular. Why, and what can the government do about it?
-
Sudoku medium: November 16, 2025The daily medium sudoku puzzle from The Week
-
The countries around the world without jury trialsThe Explainer Legal systems in much of continental Europe and Asia do not rely on randomly selected members of the public
-
The Supreme Court case that could forge a new path to sue the FBIThe Explainer The case arose after the FBI admitted to raiding the wrong house in 2017
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suitSpeed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments lawSpeed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
Swearing in the UK: a colourful historyIn The Spotlight Thanet council's bad language ban is the latest chapter in a saga of obscenity
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
