Former Ohio Police Officer Ray Tensing is now a free man after shooting and killing Sam DuBose, a unarmed black man in July 2015.
At least for now.
Tensing, 26, was an officer at The University of Cincinnati when he was charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter based on evidence from his body camera.
But a judge ordered a mistrial Saturday after a Hamilton County Common Pleas Court jury remained deadlocked with eight jurors voting to convict him of voluntary manslaughter and four wanting to convict him of murder.
There were 10 white and two black jurors.
The trial lasted for two weeks and the jury deliberated for 25 hours.
The Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office now has the options of retrying the case, offering a plea deal to Tensing or dropping the charges all together. The prosecutor will announce a decision later this month.
“In my job, you make decisions that affect people’s lives almost every day, and all you can do is what you think is right,” said Joe Deters, the prosecutor in charge of the case.
“I still think it’s murder; I think that we proved it. We’ll look at what we did and make an assessment,”
The DuBose family demands that the case be retried with a new jury. In fact, The University of Cincinnati reached a $5.3 million settlement with the DuBose family.
The DuBose family received $4,850,000 of the settlement and the remaining $500,000 will go towards the college education of DuBose’s 12 children.
Tensing pulled DuBose over for not having a license plate on July 19, 2015. Next, Tensing ordered DuBose out of the vehicle but DuBose refused to exit the vehicle and proceeded to drive off while Tensing was holding on to the vehicle.
It was then that Tensing fired a shot from his department issued weapon, which fatally hit DuBose in the head. Tensing claims he was drug by the vehicle as it began to move forward, fearing for his life.
Tensing was arrested and fired days after the shooting.
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